Mass Foundations: All the World's a Stage
by Nord Ronnoc
Summary: Something brought the Doctor and the TARDIS to an alternate Earth ravaged by nuclear war. There, he encountered a lone wanderer and together, they contended with strange creatures and powerful beings. To find the source of these troubles, they would have to work together and travel throughout the multiverse, willingly or not. All in a day's work for the Doctor.
1. Prologue: Opening

_Hey, everyone. It took me a bit to decide whether I should do a rewrite of All the World's a Stage but going by this prologue, you can guess what that answer was. I want to do it because, to me, the original version was lacking in some areas. There were some things left unexplained, the plot point regarding the glass creatures was rushed, etc. I hope that this would be an improvement._

* * *

 **Mass Foundations: All the World's a Stage**

 **Prologue: Opening**

 _"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."_

 _—Murphy's Law_

A spaceship, either very cleverly or very clumsily disguised as a police box, tumbled through the space-time vortex. As it landed on a street in London, a strange wheezing and groaning sound echoed in the night. Inside was a large control room sprawling beyond the deceptive doors; its many surfaces and devices awash in a golden glow. Everyone who passed through those police box doors for the first time all commented on the most remarkable thing about the box: not the many dials or central component of moving glass, but how much bigger it sprawled on the inside.

By the many-sided room was a pale, tall man with a thin face and a mop of wild silver hair. His hair went along quite well with his thick eyebrows, sharp blue eyes, and a hooked nose. His dark coat and trousers would give anyone the impression that he was a rock star still on tour. That old man was a time traveler, a Time Lord from the lost planet Gallifrey, and he was known as the Doctor.

"Whew! That was quite an adventure there, Doctor."

He wasn't alone. He turned away from the monitor. In front of him was a lithe young woman, short and rosy-skinned. Her brown hair held by a headband, she wore a red dress and a pair of sneakers with matching colors.

"Indeed, Clara. At least we made it the night before the parent-teacher conference, no?" The Doctor grinned rather awkwardly. "Never a fan of them myself. I wasn't so well-behaved when I was a child."

Clara Oswald, the young woman, rolled her eyes. "Of course. Can't say I'm surprised." She walked to the only exit.

"Try not to get yourself into trouble while I'm away," she called out like a parent requesting their child to behave. "And don't be late, okay?"

With that, she stepped out of the TARDIS and closed the door behind her.

The Doctor smirked and crossed his arms. "Ah, you know me better than that, Clara. I always find trouble, wherever that may be," he said to no one in particular.

As if on cue, frantic numbers flashed on the screen. The alarms blaring out caught the Doctor by surprise. Before he could analyze the data, the whole room—no, the entire TARDIS—shook violently, as if in the middle of an earthquake. He could barely keep his balance as he held onto the console.

Sparks flew in all directions, and loose wires dangling about. The lighting flickered a fiery red before everything turned pitch black.

In hindsight, the Time Lord wished he hadn't said those words.


	2. Chapter 1: A Touch of Glass

_I've cut the Big Mountain arc out of story. I wanted to focus on Jocelyn Song, my take on the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3, and how she was doing after the events of the game and how she got back on her feet, with the Doctor as this story's deuteragonist. So originally, the Doctor would show the holotape that featured the Courier explaining what happened to him and his experiment in improving the Transportalponder, motivating her to find him. Plus, I had a plan of another storyline for her, which doesn't involve finding the Courier, which made me realize that didn't make sense. But don't worry; I have plans for the Big Mountain part, likely in a different story with a different protagonist._

 _I just don't see a clear direction with this part. The prologue stays, of course._

* * *

 **Chapter One: A Touch of Glass**

Consciousness returned to the Doctor. With a pained groan, he stood up to his feet, using the console for support. The main control room was still well-lit, sparing him the pain of stumbling around in the dark. He moved the monitor toward him and pressed buttons and flicked switches. The screen lit up, revealing an image gathered from one of the satellites. He would have dismissed it as his own world by the early 2010s, if not for a sickly shimmer over select parts of the planet, the year 2286.

"Something happened to this world. Radiation, most likely," he muttered to himself, his expression grim. He took another look at the readings. According to his current coordinates, he was somewhere in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. "Something's not right here." He stood up with his hand on his chin and paced around the console.

"Normally, traveling between parallel universes would drain the TARDIS of all energy. Without the Time Vortex, it would be out of commission. Now, if I were prepared, it would be a temporary setback." He snapped his fingers together.

"Question: if all that applies, then why does the TARDIS still have power? Why is it still running?" He pointed his finger upward. "Answer: There is one of two possibilities. One: The Time Vortex also connects to this universe. Two: A rift in time and space has appeared, preserving the TARDIS's energy."

The Doctor looked at the monitor after pressing more buttons. The monitor now read:

 _RIFT DETECTED_

 _SEVERITY: LOW_

 _SIZE: SMALLER THAN BELGIUM_

"Well, that sounds more than anticlimactic," the Doctor commented. "Question is, where is it?"

Another command prompt and the monitor now read:

 _SCANNING – IN PROGRESS…_

He scoffed. "Of course, you ol' girl. Of course."

He was about to step away from the console, if not for the sudden buzzing coming out of the radio attached to the console. The Doctor recognized it was a distress signal.

"This is Knight Jefferson of the Brotherhood of Steel, requesting backup," the man on the radio spoke. "We have arrived in Baltimore at 0432 hours today. Something has been picking off my men. They're not deathclaws, super mutants, not even those ferals. Whatever these creatures are, they're worse. Much worse." The radio buzzed as the man paused before continuing.

"There were… eight of us. Now, there's me and Initiate Samuel. There's a RobCo facility in Baltimore. You'll recognize it when you see the sign at the front. We're holed up in one of the storage rooms. Whatever you do, avoid the broken pieces of glass. I repeat, avoid the broken glass. They form bodies around them. That's how they got to my team!"

There was a faint echo, almost like a growl, followed by banging noises soon after. Another voice, that of a younger man, said in a panicked tone, "Sir? They're here."

The older man sighed as if he resigned himself to his fate. "I see." A hum sounded out. It wasn't the man humming. It was a machine humming to life. "Relay the signal and loop this message. Steel be with us."

The message ended right there before looping back to the start. The Time Lord turned off the radio. He heard enough.

"I don't know if I'm too late to save him," the Time Lord stated. "But whatever is causing this nightmare, I'll put an end to it. Wherever the universe—or any universe, really—call for help, it shows its true face. I show mine by my response."

He set out to the exit behind him but paused, nodding with a small smirk on his face. "Hm, I probably should say that again someday. With some refinement, of course." He smiled. "Bet Clara would love to hear it."

Stepping out of the TARDIS, he looked around and saw crumbling, ruined buildings that stretched for miles. Rusted and broken down 1950s-style cars filled the streets, something that made the Time Lord raise an eyebrow. What inconvenienced him as he walked around was the debris that randomly fell from some old building many years ago. Centuries, by the looks of it.

Another thing that hindered him was the streetlights. He dreaded that at any moment, a streetlight could shorten out and leave him in utter darkness. Either that, or it would flicker in and out.

He looked up at the nighttime sky. "At least there are stars," he remarked to no one in particular.

Aside from the howling winds and the scuttles of old paper flying about, there was an uneasy silence filling the air. He never saw a single soul. Of course, he mused. Pockets of radiation, a ruined city; it was clear this Earth had suffered from atomic annihilation, as some had predicted back on his Earth.

Going down another block away from the blue box and around a corner, he saw a sign flashing and flickering on the front side of an otherwise unassuming office building, only about a few stories tall. There was only one word plastered on the wall: RobCo.

With a determined look, the Doctor brisk across the street and opened the double-doors. Inside was a large lobby room complete with formerly comfy chairs and a desk at the other end of the room. The plain paint had peeled off from the walls and ceilings due to centuries worth of wear and neglect. It was surprising that the lights were functioning, albeit yellow and worn down from years of neglect.

He even tasted something in the air. "Mold. And… dust particles." He licked the dust off his fingers before spitting them out. His face wrinkled in disgust. "How this managed to get through environmental regulations is beyond me," he remarked sardonically. "Oh, right…"

There were also inert robots placed on display all around him. Most of them were biped in shape with stiff legs and wiggly tubes for arms, like they shameless ripped off _The Forbidden Planet_ and other B-movies. One robot that stood out was very large and very bulky, standing on four-legged wheels; the other was a round torso with three arms and eyes folded toward it.

No doubt this Earth stuck with everything about the 1950s to the bitter end.

Much to his disappointment, however, each inscription was scratched off in some chaotic pattern.

Everywhere he looked, from some of the bathrooms to the offices, there were signs of an intense battle. Scorch marks on the floor and the walls, random metal pieces laid out everywhere, and strangely enough, claw marks, three parallel to each other and in equal length and depth.

And on every occasion, he heard heavy footsteps above him, creaking as bits of wood fell off, trailing along with them. While the Doctor's hearts nearly leaped with joy, he couldn't help but wonder: was that Jefferson? Samuel? Or was it somebody else?

While exploring another office adjacent to the lobby, he spotted a glowing screen in the darkness. When he crept closer, he found it was a blocky computer with an integrated keyboard and no mouse attached to it.

A smile spread wide across his face. "Oh, I do love those pop-up buttons. Everything was so _swipey_ these days!" he made a sweeping motion with his right hand before pressing the red power button next to the screen.

A series of green letters line out as a block of the same color traveled to the right, spelling out:

 ** _ROBCO INDUSTRIES UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM  
COPYRIGHT 2075-2077 ROBCO INDUSTRIES  
-Server 16-_**

 ** _Welcome, Kevin Ross._**

Below were several lines marked as dates. Pressing the enter key on the first one brought him to a log detailing his first day on the job. He found it really boring and skipped that one out. The next one detailed his date, claiming that his girlfriend would always belong to him, and all that creepy and melancholic stuff.

 ** _8/16/2077_**

 ** _Out of the blue, one of the researchers came from another facility in Portland with a glass orb. He said he got it from an expedition in Afghanistan. He showed it to the others, and I admit it does look rather pretty. Why he didn't bring it over to the government, a museum, or whatever was beyond me. Never got the chance to ask some questions._**

 ** _My shift ended early, so I'm outta here._**

Intrigued, the Doctor selected the next one and pressed the enter key once more.

 ** _8/30/2077_**

 ** _All I did was ask him how he was doing, and he gave me that look—the one that screamed, "I am going to kill you." Aside from him muttering about the orb, he said he kept it in the basement, he said nothing. That creeped me out bad. I filed a complaint with HR and they said they would look into this. Matter of fact, he was never transferred here, like he decided to live here or something._**

 ** _9/17/2077_**

 ** _I swear to god, I thought someone was standing right next to me, whispering in my ear. But no one was at my desk. What the hell is going on?_**

 ** _I'm leaving early. My boss will understand._**

 ** _10/19/2077_**

 ** _Bastard scientist tried to attack my coworkers. All he got was being institutionalized. Good riddance. That wasn't the end of it, however. Things have gotten worse since he left. It started out with glass breaking, mostly mirrors and windows. Our janitor wasn't thrilled about cleaning up the mess. Neither was our boss._**

 ** _We've been on a shoestring budget for a while, so we had to cancel some projects to pay for the mess. Thrilling._**

 ** _The other guys went in to investigate in the basement but didn't bring anything up. All they told me was not to go in the basement and not to tell anyone. Didn't stop me from writing this down. Idiots._**

 ** _10/22/2077_**

 ** _Malcolm was at the hospital. He got cuts and bruises all. How he was alive was anyone's guess. Someone or something attacked him with something sharp, which would explain a lot. I stopped by to check to see if he was okay. In the meantime, the police stopped by my workplace. Their investigations turned up empty. Were they slacking off or am I missing something here?_**

 ** _I got a bad feeling about this._**

Strangely enough, the next entry did not have a date, but it was titled. It was labeled 'THAT ORB'.

 ** _As if the bombs falling wasn't enough, the orb made that paradise in comparison._**

 ** _The same thing that happened to the egghead was happening to me right now. It called to me, whispered my name. I couldn't help myself, so I unlocked the door to the basement and looked inside. Now I wish I hadn't._**

 ** _Something had been killing my friends. I'm getting out of here with that spare hazmat suit I conveniently found. To hell with the radiation. If you want to live, then whatever you do, if the colors of the glass don't match, AVOID THEM!_**

 ** _If you don't, don't say I didn't warn you._**

The sound of the glass breaking from a nearby room had impeccable timing, breaking the Doctor's concentration.

The Doctor craned his neck backward with a sigh. "Can't I get a moment of peace to myself? Is that so hard to ask?"

More glass broke, this time from the hallway outside.

He turned around and stepped away from the terminal, his right foot stepping on something that crunched under his weight. He knelt to inspect what he stepped on. Some of the pieces of glass to the floor were of different colors, and they seemed to be moving on their own. Seconds later the small pieces formed into an unsettling smile.

His thoughts turned to what the last entry log on the terminal warned him about. Chitters, like glass pinging together, could easily be heard. He was not alone here.

A quick survey of the room revealed a plain, metal cabinet on the well-lit side of the room. With quiet footing, he hurried across, avoiding the ever-shifting pieces of glass on the floor. As he opened it, he searched every inch of the cabinet, both in the inside and on the outside, for any piece of glass with mismatched colors. With nothing inside, the Doctor squeezed into the only spot he could fit into and shut the door.

It was cramped and no light came in through the silts. The Time Lord slowed his breathing down to not draw attention to whatever was out there, looking for him. Aside from that, the other things he heard were more glassing pinging along with growling and hissing.

The noises went on for minutes. The Doctor considered himself lucky that whatever hadn't found him yet.

Everything went quiet after that. He opened the door and hopped out of the cabinet. He made his way out of the office and surveyed the well-lit hallway. He did not want any nasty surprises waiting in the dark.

Finding nothing, he went to the stairs and onto the next floor. This one was very much like the one below: well-lit and empty but had several doors on both sides. As he stepped in, there was a loud crack, bringing his attention to the source, which came from the end of the hallway in front of him. He froze, his eyes wide open.

It emerged from the shadows. Roughly in the shape of a lizard the size of a dog, its glass shards had every possible color and opacity, with four legs of slightly varying lengths. Its head resembled a spider with three dark orb-like eyes at each side of its face and perfectly smooth pincers at the front. Each spike lining on its back, from the tip of its tail to the base of its head, was a spiral. Its tail had curved upwards in the shape of a question mark, and larger shards jutted out from its underside at such extreme angles.

The Doctor could barely make a move before the creature took notice of him. "Good… kitty-spider… glass…" Now wide-eyed, the Doctor raised his hands in front of him.

The creature hissed and pounced, zipping down the hallway like a lightning bolt. He would have made a run for it, if not for a sudden blue light appearing behind the creature, disintegrating it instantly.

He looked and saw a large, imposing figure in the room at the end of the hallway.

"Are you all right?" the stranger asked as she stepped out of the room with heavy thuds for every step she took. Her scratch-riddled, gritty gray armor, from head to toe, was massive and covered with backpacks, pouches and fanny packs. Her helmet's visor had angled downward, giving her a menacing look. The armor's bulkiness and its shoulders' blocky appearance made her look like a tank on legs. Her weapons hung at her side, including the rifle and the high-tech sledgehammer, further supported the assumption.

"I'm fine, thank you," the Doctor answered, finally lowering his hands.

The woman approached the Doctor, towering over him by about half a meter or so. She took a glance at him, almost like she was studying him. With her helmet on, he had no idea what she was thinking.

"Most scavengers I've met are hardly this clean. And they tend to carry lots of junk," the stranger pointed out. "Who are you?"

The Doctor stepped past her and stared at the ash pile. "I'm the Doctor." He turned at the armored stranger. "Nice to meet you." He turned back at the pile and took a pinch of it. "So, you came here to investigate the signal?" He tasted the pinch, only to spit it back out. Nothing out of the ordinary, he noted. "Either this Jefferson and this Samuel were very good at hiding or these things have already disposed of them already."

"They're dead." She showed him dog tags hanging from her right hand. One tag informed him of a man's expiration date, was hours before; the other had his name on it—Seth Jefferson.

"I see." He hung his head low. "What a shame. Were you planning on retrieving them?"

She put the dog tags in a pouch wrapped around her waist. "Not a good time to talk about my dealings with the Brotherhood of Steel right now."

"Of course." The Doctor stood up and found himself gawking at a rifle that resembled a grenade rifle but with a blocky rifle held in her hands. "What's that?"

The woman in armor lowered her rifle and briefly investigated it. "That's a Holorifle. A friend of mine gave it to me years ago."

"What happened to your friend?"

She fell silent for a moment before walking past the Doctor. "He's gone."

"Shouldn't we be concerned about this strange and mysterious orb that's been causing all sorts of trouble down in the basement? Or is that just me?" he inquired, pointing his finger upward.

The woman sighed as she looked back at him. "I'll check it out, then. You coming or what?"

"Of course," the Doctor replied. "Oh, and what's your name?"

"It's Jocelyn Song. People called me the Lone Wanderer in the Capital Wasteland," she answered. She turned back to her general direction and continued walking, the Doctor following close behind.

* * *

They spent the next several minutes traversing from one room to another, their eyes alert for any of the glass creatures. Unfortunately, they had to travel upstairs to traverse around debris that blocked their way to the basement. As they snuck through the assembly line on a walkway, they saw two of the creatures gnawing on one of the dome-shaped robots' head.

Jocelyn was ready to fire her weapon, but she seemed to hesitate when the Doctor laid a hand on her wrist, silently urging her not to get unwanted attention. She nodded in response and they passed through without incident, despite her armor making some noise with each step she took.

They arrived at a storage room on the ground floor, and the Doctor gazed around the area. The room was stuffed with empty cabinets and broken terminals laid out on top. At the end of the room was a metal door with a cog in the center, with a terminal mounted on the wall at its right. Jocelyn hung her gun around her chest and approached the door. With steady hands, she gripped the cog and twisted it. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't get it open, let alone even move it slightly.

"Need help?" the Doctor asked in a slight snide tone as he watched.

"Nope, I'm good," she grunted.

He cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Doesn't that armor enhance your strength? I mean, come on, look at you!" He stretched his arms in front of him. "You're huge wearing that thing!"

The Wanderer let go of the cog with a shake of her head and a sigh. "Looks like this door's tied to this terminal, and it doesn't look like there's a lock to pick. They really don't want this orb to get out."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Well, of course they don't want it out! It didn't really work out for them, don't you think?"

She ignored his remark as she turned her attention to the terminal. When she pressed the power button, the keyboard unfolded into view. "Keep an eye out, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," the Doctor nodded with a smirk, watching Jocelyn do her thing. A casual glance around the room, finding yet again none of the glass creatures in sight. He got a bad feeling about this.

With his arms folded in front of him, he couldn't help but ponder in his mind. If this all could go well, then they would part ways without incident, and he would surely lose his chance to inquire about her history. Given her hesitation, it wasn't a pleasant one. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Earlier, you mentioned you this… Brotherhood of yours," the Doctor spoke.

Jocelyn said nothing. He hoped she was focusing on the terminal and not ignoring him. Because that would be rather rude of her.

He sighed as he rubbed his face. "Look. It's clear you have a lot on your mind, but you don't want to talk about it. That's fine. Really. I understand. Not everybody wants to talk about their traumatic experiences. But I think you want, you know…" He shrugged with curled lips. "Closure. Cathartics. Get it off your chest. Because if you don't, you're going to wonder for the rest of your life whether you would get another chance and regret not taking it the first time 'round." He paused for a second before taking a deep breath. "Wouldn't you want to take that chance? It would do you a whole lot of good. Trust me on this one."

Finally, as if on cue, Jocelyn pressed enter on the right word flashing on the screen among lines of random symbols and other words that made no sense in rhyme or pattern. "All right, we're in," she said. Inputting another commanded opened. The cog sprung as the two outer parts sliding into the walls, the metal lowered into the floor with metal grinding against each other. It wasn't a pleasant sound, to say the least. At least nobody else in their vacancy had heard it, judging by the silent response.

Ahead of them was a passageway wrapped in a thick blanket of darkness.

The Doctor took a step toward her with a stern frown. "Have you listened to a word I said?"

The Lone Wanderer turned on the lamplight at the side of her helmet, revealing a stairway just after a sharp turn to their left. "Yeah, I hear you."

"Don't you think this would be an excellent time?" He pointed at the passageway. "I mean, surely this will be a long stairway."

She picked up her rifle and braced it against her shoulder. "If anything happens to me, do you know how to defend yourself?"

He looked at Jocelyn. "Have I told you I'm not big on guns?"

She turned to the Doctor. With the way she tilted her helmet, he had this feeling she was giving him a curious look. "Yeah, you're not from around here."

"I'll explain later."

The Lone Wanderer seemed to take it in stride, as she entered without a word. Since her headlight was the only source of light here, they had to be careful as to where they stop as they descended on the stairs.

"Why don't we start things out with you?" the Doctor asked. "So… where did you come from?"

"I was born at the Jefferson Memorial. My mom died, and my dad raised me in a fallout shelter. People call them Vaults," Jocelyn answered after a moment of hesitation.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. My dad really loved her. He said she was passionate about a lot of things. About life."

"Sounded like your mother was a good person," the Doctor commented. "What was it like, living in one of these Vaults?"

That question made her go quiet again. "It used to be paradise down there. No fear, no worries, not much fighting, and I had people looking after me…" There was a wistful tone in her voice. "Until my dad left."

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows, his mouth forming into a frown. "Your father doesn't exactly like a good person to me."

"He had a good reason," she insisted. "Besides, Vaults like mine weren't meant to save anyone."

"So they were experiments," the Doctor guessed.

"Yeah. It's pretty rare to find one that did what they were advertised back then," the Lone Wanderer explained. "Mine was Vault 101. Vault-Tec made sure nobody would enter, and nobody would ever leave. I escaped not long after my dad did, and I went out to look for him. Turns out he was looking for a terraforming device that would make Project Purity work properly."

"And this project does what, exactly?"

"To provide clean water in the wasteland," the Wanderer answered. "The Capital Wasteland was one of the worst places to live in. When I found my dad, we resumed the project, but… he died protecting me and his dream."

"And you went to the Brotherhood of Steel for help."

"It took a lot of effort in finding the GECK," said Jocelyn. "If you ask me, Liberty Prime did _all_ the hard work in retaking the facility."

"What, is Liberty Prime a giant robot?"

Jocelyn let out a small chuckle. " _Yes_. He's this giant, bombastic robot and he certainly lives up to the name."

The Time Lord had to resist forming that smile on his face. "Oh, I would love to see that."

"I bet you would. You should've seen him in action."

She stopped in her tracks, and the Doctor nearly slipped and fell, bumping against her. Luckily, her armor was bulky enough to fill the space ahead of him and sturdy enough to have her hardly notice. As he regained his balance, she turned toward him. "Have you ever did so much and worked so hard to make things right, only to have everything just... fall apart around you?"

The Doctor sighed deeply, letting her words sink in enough to make his hearts throb. "More times than I can count."

She said nothing, even as she looked away and went on ahead.

Just as the Doctor began to wonder if they would ever reach the bottom, their feet met the flat floor beneath them, her left hand meeting the handle of a plain metal door.

"Looks like this is the place," she said. "Ready?"

The Doctor nodded. "Are you? I mean, you clearly _are_ ready."

Jocelyn opened the door quietly as it cracked softly, and they both stepped inside.

The basement was large and had little light, supported only by a single flickering light bulb attached to the ceiling. One of the few things in here was a plain pillar placed in the center of the room, crowned on top by a glowing, transparent orb and blue markings surrounding it.

The other thing—or rather, things were the glass creatures by the dozen, seemingly asleep. They didn't react when Jocelyn shone her lamplight on each of them. None of them made a move nor noise as if they were still as statues.

The Doctor went past his new companion and looked at one of the markings on the floor with furrowed eyebrows. It didn't look like anything that lacked rhyme or reason. Rather, they were all about the many-worlds interpretation. The uncertainty principle, the measurements of a wormhole, and others that relate to wavelengths, quantum mechanics, and particle physics. There were also a couple of equations that seemed far too incomprehensible for any human being to write.

He looked up at the orb as he rubbed his chin. Something bothered him about that thing. How did it survive for so long in such perfect condition? And how did it manage to withstand a nuclear war? To be fair for that last question, it was stored here. But that begged another question: Why didn't anyone bother to destroy the orb? What exactly stopped them?

For some reason, he wanted to touch it, just to see how it would react.

"Doctor?" the Lone Wanderer called out through a whisper. "Are you okay?"

The Doctor blinked as he spurred himself out of his thoughts. Before he even realized it, he was muttering to himself, and his hand was hovering centimeters away from the orb. He lowered his hand and straightened his posture, clearing his throat in the process. "Sorry, I… uh, got carried away."

A hum vibrated in the Time Lord's teeth, which he found particularly odd. He looked back, and the orb suddenly lit up, taking on a blue hue like it deflected off a daytime's skyline. As if in response to the orb, the glass creatures woke up and raised their heads. All of them screamed in unison, like multiple tuning forks playing all at once. The equations on the floor glowed of its own accord.

Before either of them knew it, the orb grew so bright they had to look away and close their eyes, lest they go blind. He collapsed in pain as a jolt of electricity coursed through his body.

When he came to, the Doctor stood up and found himself back in the TARDIS control room, the same as he had left it. He looked around and saw Jocelyn also coming to her senses.

The back of Jocelyn's armor suddenly unfolded as it made a hissing sound, and she climbed out, standing almost as tall as he was. The back of the armor folded back into shape.

This woman with chestnut skin had a tired look on her face (for that he could relate), her messy black hair tied in a bun. Her facial features, such as her narrow brown eyes, angular jawline, and wide nose, were signs of her being multiracial.

Her tattered trench coat shared a similar story to her hairstyle, a hood hanging behind her neck. Over that and underneath the vents were green ballistic plates all over her body. Given she lugged around who knows what in her backpack and pouches without wearing herself out, along with her weapons, he had to assume she was heavily built.

The one thing that caught his attention was a contraption strapped on her left forearm. "What's that on your arm?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's a Pip-Boy. Standard equipment for vault dwellers, like me. But that's not the…" She made her way to the exit and opened the door, looking outside. It didn't take long for her to close it quickly before going back to the Doctor. "Okay, I have to ask you something."

The Doctor nodded, his back leaning against the railing. He saw this one coming. "Go on."

"Why is it bigger on the inside, why is it a blue phone box, and how the hell did we get on a space station?"


	3. Chapter 2: Satellite Rock

_Sorry for the repost. I didn't like what I had in mind for how it went originally, so I streamlined the pacing. So here you go!_

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Satellite Rock**

 _Year: 2277  
Location: Vault 101, Capital Wasteland_

"Come on, you've got to wake up!"

Jocelyn's eyes fluttered as she woke up, and she stared at a gray, sterile ceiling, highlighted by a harsh and artificial light. Alarms blared out in the hallway. Something had gone wrong.

She sat up from her bed, stupefied and half-tired. She found a close friend standing in front of her. Dark hair tied into a ponytail, peachy skin, and hazel eyes; Amata took up a lot from her father, the Vault's overseer. Like Jocelyn and everyone else in the Vault, Amata wore a blue jumpsuit with a gold line running around her collar and down the middle of her chest.

"Huh? What's wrong, Amata?" she asked, still a little drowsy.

The overseer's daughter breathed deeply, trying to settle her nerves. "You've got to get out of here! Your dad is gone, and my father's men are looking for you!"

Jocelyn stared out in disbelief, and all sleepiness vanished instantly. "What do you mean, my dad is gone? He…"

"I mean he's left the vault! I don't know how, but he's gone and my father…" Amata hesitated. "He's kind of gone crazy."

Jocelyn was dumbstruck. "I've never seen you so scared in your life, Amata. What happened?"

"It's Jonas… they killed him! My father's men. They took him and…" Amata's voice wavered and her eyes watered, she nearly fell to her knees. "Oh my god. You have to leave, now!"

"Oh my god. Are you okay?" Jocelyn asked as she helped her friend up to her feet.

Amata nodded and looked back at her. "Yeah. Don't worry about me. I'm just sorry you had to find out like this. I know Jonas was your friend. But we've got to go now! My father's men will be here any minute!"

Jonas had been around for as long as she remembered. As her father's assistant, he always helped him in her father's research. Hell, she even remembered the dorky smile on Jonas's face when he told her of a surprise from her dad on her 10th birthday. And he kept that smile when he took a picture of her with a radroach she killed with her new BB gun.

And now… now he was dead. For what? Why did her father left her behind with a man who snapped? What led him to set out to the outside world?

"That's impossible. My dad couldn't have left. The door's sealed shut." Jocelyn had her mouth agape. He couldn't have just left. Could he?

"Not anymore, apparently. But… are you honestly telling me you had no idea your dad was leaving? He really didn't tell you?"

Jocelyn shook her head. "No. I had no idea he was planning to leave."

"Oh." Amata was surprised at her answer. "I'm sorry. I'm sure he had his reasons. Maybe Jonas was supposed to explain everything to you? But it doesn't matter. I can help you escape. I have my own plan!" She sure sounded confident.

"Escape from the vault? How?"

"Listen. There's a secret tunnel that leads directly from my father's office to the exit. You'll have to hack the computer in his office to open it." Amata pulled a small box of bobby pins out of her pocket and gave it to Jocelyn. "Use it to get in. That's how I always get in," she said with a wry smile.

It was either escape to the world outside to find her father or stay here and have the Overseer's men execute her. Jocelyn's lips curled after coming to that conclusion. "Sounds like a plan. Let's get out of here!"

"Oh, one more thing." Amata gave Jocelyn a blocky laser pistol along with its holster. "I stole one of my father's guns. I hope you won't need it, but you'd better take it just in case." She also gave her several fusion cells.

Jocelyn lifted the pistol in her trembling hands. Mint condition, like it had never fired before. She had no problem killing radroaches and other pests. But a human being, people she knew all her life? She wasn't so sure.

She looked back at her friend. "Thanks, Amata. I promise I'll use it as a last resort."

Amata nodded. "Okay. I'll try to meet you at the exit. Watch out for security. Good luck!"

Amata made a beeline for the exit. Jocelyn put the holster on her right thigh and placed the new pistol in it. She looked around the room and grabbed a baseball bat and her old BB gun, with its pellets, on the desk. If she didn't stop, she would forget to grab some spare Vault jumpsuits, her baseball cap, and the 14th issue of Grognak the Barbarian. On the way out, she grabbed a stack of stimpaks from the first aid kit at the door.

She stopped and looked back at her bedroom. There would not be any going back. Amata made that clear. She would need to get out of here and find her father. Hopefully, he would have some answers.

With a sharp intake, she stepped out of her room.

* * *

 _Year: 2286?  
Location: Unknown_

The Doctor blinked in surprise, but going by that toothy smile of his, he was quite happy to answer. "Well," he said as he clasped his hands together. "Normally people don't ask. They just go all 'Oh!' and 'Ah!' and 'It's bigger on the inside!'"

"You haven't answered my questions," Jocelyn replied.

"For why it looks like a blue police box, it's meant to adapt to its surroundings. But the thing that's _supposed_ to make it work broke. On why the inside bigger than the outside, that might be an extraordinary and involved answer, but I will do my best to answer. One moment." The Doctor raised his bony index finger and rushed off to a nearby stairway leading to a level below. She wasn't quite sure if she should call out to get his attention, but he came back up with two featureless cubes in his hands, one larger than the other.

"To start things off, insides and outsides are not in the same dimension." He placed the larger one on the console and stepped back. "Take it from your perspective. Which box is larger?"

"The one on the console," she answered, pointing at the box.

"Technically that's correct, but you're thinking in terms of Euclidean geometry," the Doctor replied. "From where I'm standing, the box in my hand is larger than the one on the console. If you keep that same distance away and have it here, the larger one can fit inside the smaller one."

Jocelyn raised a finger in protest. "But that doesn't—" She internalized the irritated grunt that almost escaped her lips. "Are you talking about different dimensions?"

"Yes. That's trans-dimensional engineering," the Doctor answered before placing both cubes back in the cabinet below. "A keystone of Time Lord technology. We're in the TARDIS. Short for Time And Relative Dimension in Space."

"TARDIS? So we're in a time machine?" Jocelyn noted. Her gaze went off in a slightly different direction.

"Yes. Does that help?"

"Yeah, but…" She set her eyes on the Doctor. "What are you, exactly?"

The Doctor crossed his arms behind his back and for no reason other than to look official, pace around the console. "I'm a Time Lord. We're one of the oldest civilizations out there. In _my_ universe, I mean." He paused and fell silent for a moment. "I ran away nearly two thousand years ago with this TARDIS."

"So… you're immortal? Long-lived?"

"Correct on the second account," the Doctor replied. "Each of us has this ability to regenerate, to cheat death. It can only happen twelve times or, if the High Council really likes you, grant you additional regenerations. Side effect of regeneration. A different look, a different body, and a different personality. Rattles the brain every time it happens."

Jocelyn tilted her head. She wasn't sure what to make of this silly old man. "How did you get here? Is it possible to travel between different universes?"

"Not these days," said the Doctor. "Speaking of which…"

The time traveler approached the console and brought the monitor from the other side to this spot. Jocelyn stepped behind him as he pressed a series of buttons and flicked some switches, his eyes focused on the screen. She leaned forward as words appeared on the screen.

 _DATE: APRIL 14_ _TH_ _, 4356_

More words appeared on the screen.

 _RIFT DETECTED_

 _SEVERITY: LOW BUT RISING_

 _SIZE: SLIGHTLY LARGER BUT STILL SMALLER THAN BELGIUM_

"Belgium? That small Pre-War nation?" Jocelyn wondered with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes. She was so glad she paid attention in class at Vault 101, unlike Butch.

"Bit anticlimactic, I know," the Doctor replied, still studying the screen, his face stoic yet indecipherable.

"So what kind of rift are we talking about? Did it bring you here?"

The Time Lord shrugged.

"Do you have any idea where it is?"

After the Doctor pressed more buttons, the words on the screen now read:

 _LOCATION: UNKNOWN_

The Doctor sucked his cheeks in, disappointed. "Oh. That's… unfortunate."

There was a knock at the door. Once, then twice, both urgent. As their attention was brought to the door, they exchanged looks. With a tilt of her head, Jocelyn urged the Doctor to go check it out, which he did by opening the door.

A man barged in, bumping into the Doctor. He was pale with combed dark hair, reaching down to the base of his neck while his angular chin sported a short beard. A hunched posture and a worried look in his eyes would tell her and the Doctor that there was a lot on his mind or something terrible was going on.

"Oh, so sorry," said the man with an English accent after dusting off the shoulder of his green uniform. "What in God's name took you so long?"

The Doctor arched an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"Well, I saw the TARDIS appearing, so I…" The man stopped himself and cleared his throat before straightening his posture. "My apologies, sir. I'm Dr. Alexander Rand. I'm the administrator of the Icarus UGIT station."

"What's UGIT?" Jocelyn asked.

"United Galactic Intelligence Taskforce. Used to be called the United Intelligence Taskforce back in the day," Dr. Rand answered.

"They're the ones that defend Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats," the Doctor finished. The administrator offered his hand, and the Doctor shook it. "A pleasure, Dr. Rand. Mind telling us what's going on?"

"Well, uh…" Rand hesitated as he snapped his fingers and paced around. "Do either of you know a thing or two about the Ania?"

The Doctor shook his head. "What are they?"

"Well… Imagine if… itsy-bitsy organisms—whole colonies of them—able to bond with any crystalline or amorphous solid. They latch on glass; they _rely_ on glass. They're one of the deadliest predators in the universe. They're quick on their feet and can rip apart any flesh in seconds."

Jocelyn stepped toward the two men. "What do these Ania look like?" she asked.

"They're shaped like lizards, larger than your average household dog. Some of them vary. Tail length, the shape of the head, width… You name it," the administrator answered. "Several of them disappeared a couple of months ago. They didn't break free from their containment, sounded any alarms. They just… disappeared, like that." He snapped his fingers together. "Why? You've found them before?"

The Doctor nodded grimly. "We've encountered them before."

"I see. But that's not all." Alexander took a deep breath. "We're also having problems with the Cybermen."

The Lone Wanderer furrowed her brow. "Cybermen?"

"It's best if I show you." The administrator left the TARDIS in a hurry, and the Doctor followed.

As she slipped back inside her power armor, Jocelyn stepped out of the TARDIS. Looking around, this room matched what she imagined what a CEO would have. Large, open space between a singular, a futuristic door and a wooden desk carved so well it almost looked natural. And no executive office would ever be complete without an extravagant red carpet laid out beneath her feet. The holographic-looking globe of an alien planet on the desk was just the cherry on top.

She turned to her left toward a window encasing the entire wall before her. Out there, she saw a blue sun shimmering in the starry, black void of outer space. The star vastly dwarfed over a smaller celestial body that was wreathed in an atmosphere that gave off a sickly, green-brown glow. She couldn't exactly tell what surrounded the planet, but it let out a beautiful gleam to it.

All this about outer space and being in a space station reminded of Mothership Zeta and her crew. With that, her heart sank just a little. Last he heard of them was years ago, back when she traveled to the ruins of Chicago. She couldn't get a hold of them nor could she use the beacon at the Capital Wasteland to teleport her up to the ship. With everything that happened since Chicago, she could only assume the worst.

"If you're done gawking about, we could use you for a moment," Alex called out, snapping Jocelyn out of her thoughts.

She followed her gaze to the Doctor and the administrator standing in front of a giant floating screen. "What is it?"

"We have a bit of a problem." The Doctor clasped his hands together.

"Clearly, that's understating what I've said," Alex added. "Two problems, in fact."

"What's the first one, then?" she asked.

"Cybermen," the administrator answered while looking at her. "You said you wanted to know what they are, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

The administrator turned to the screen and tapped on it as if it was solid, conjuring footage of a group of humanoids in silver armor, shooting beams from their light bulbs on top of their heads at men and women in a large lobby. Their faceplates were flat, having beady circles for eyes and thick lines for mouths. A moment later, and one of them trained their eyes on the camera. A light appeared on their head and the feed cut off. Only static remained before Alexander swiped the video off the screen.

This whole time, Jocelyn looked on in horror. Deep inside her was an urge screaming and whimpering at the back of the mind to turn away, not to watch it any further. But she won't. She had seen things far worse than this.

The Doctor turned to look at Jocelyn before she could say a word. "The Cybermen were once human, like you." He paced around, left to right. "Driven by survival, they augmented themselves with cybernetic implants. Perfectly sound idea but unfortunately, they added in more and more cybernetics, stripping away all the organic parts, becoming obsessed with converting every other life form in the universe. They provided an ultimatum: convert or die."

"Sounds like that's what the Brotherhood is afraid of. The endpoint of technological process without restraint," Jocelyn muttered. The more she thought about these Cybermen, the more it looked… wrong in so many ways. "How many of these Cybermen are there?"

"Enough to be called an army. Maybe an entire fleet," Alex replied. "If we don't stop them…"

Jocelyn looked at the administrator and uttered the words she never thought she would say in a long time, "Then we need to take care of them before people get killed."

"You're brave, I'll give you that. But here's another thing." He raised his hand and moved it to the right of him, bringing up an image of the planet to them. With a tap on the planet's image, it revealed a pulsing red dot near the equator, where a large cloud had formed. "There's an anomalous signal that's been agitating the Ania colonies for months."

"There are colonies of these creatures?" Jocelyn asked in surprise. "How did this signal agitate them?"

With a wave from Alex's hand waved, an image of a massive, eight-legged, creature appeared. Its glass-like scales were of all colors, its underside rimmed with shards long enough to be a few inches above the ground. Jocelyn couldn't help but compare it to a dragon from fantasy books and fairy tales. If she could those tree-like limbs on its back wings.

"That's the Ania queen. Think of her colony like how a bee queen overlooks a bee colony," the Doctor explained. "What we found on your Earth were stragglers. The RobCo employees have sealed them off in the basement. I can imagine, most of them went docile because they couldn't bear the reality without their queen. It would be like a child growing up without their parents' guidance. Feral, alone, afraid. Because if they weren't…"

He pointed at the screen, now showing a room with crystals growing over the metallic floor, walls, and ceiling.

"You're containing them. For what purpose?" Jocelyn asked.

"To save them. Icarus is a research station. While the planet's impossible for colonization due to its sulfuric atmosphere and constant volcanic eruptions, its unique minerals make anyone willing to harvest the planet and exploit its inhabitants for a quick buck," Alex added. "But the Ania are dangerous. Some of Montreal's men were injured one time when one of the big ones broke out."

"Montreal?" An incredulous Time Lord asked. "That's a bit of a silly name, isn't it?"

"Max Montreal. He's the Chief Head of Security. Bit of an arse, but that's his job," Alex answered. "Outside of that, he's pretty cool. You just have to get used to it."

The Doctor had his hand on his chin as he contemplated his answers. After a moment, he said, "Take me to the planet. We still need to find out what's wrong with the Ania hive queen."

"I'll come along," Jocelyn added.

The Doctor shook his head. "That would be nice, but no. I have to do this the only way I know how."

"And that is?"

"Talk some sense into it," he stated, shrugging. "Well, in a way, I suppose. Trust me on this one, okay?" Despite the Doctor giving her a wink and a smile, she still wasn't quite so certain.

"You certainly have this inspiring effect on people, Doctor," Alexander commented before looking at her. "What about you, then?"

Jocelyn looked at the administrator. "I guess I'll help take care of these… Cybermen."

"Okay," Alex acknowledged with a nod. "You'll rendezvous with OMI and Dr. Sami Yoko. They'll fill you in on the—"

"Wait. Stop. Stop right there." The Doctor pointed at the administrator. "OMI? What's OMI?"

"Omni Mutual Intelligence for short. They're mostly into linguistics and communication, but everything else? You'll be very grateful for them. We paid them for their job, by the way." Alex cleared his throat. "Then it's settled, I take it?"

Both the Wanderer and the Doctor confirmed their decision. "Yes," they said separately.

"Max and his team will provide you with backup, Doctor." Alex tapped on the right side of his head, pressing his fingers against an earpiece. "Max, get your team ready and set up an expedition. The Doctor will join you in a moment."

And with that, the administrator and the Doctor made their leave. Jocelyn's eyes followed the Doctor and Alex before looking back at the blue sun and the planet. She still tried to wrap around what she agreed to. It had been years since she was being all heroic, doing big things for everyone, saving lives and all that.

"I have a bad feeling about this," she said to no one in particular.

* * *

 _Planet: Ania  
System: Icarus  
Cluster: Rico  
Type: Rock  
Mass: .8 Earth Mass  
Orbital Distance: 25 AU  
Orbital Period: 12 Earth Years  
Keplerian Ratio: 0.5-1.5, varying on time of year  
Radius: 4,103.19 km (2549 miles)  
Day Length: 8 Earth Hours  
Atmospheric Pressure: 1 atm  
Surface Temperature: 50 ° C  
Surface Gravity: 0.56 g  
Satellites: n/a_

The Doctor sat in the back of the shuttle, his body bracing against harness as he was sandwiched between two of Max's security team members. The shuttle itself was small, only enough to fit a dozen people.

Save for him and Max Montreal, everybody's armor was the same; camo gray with padding all over their bodies and armed with blocky pulse rifles. The Doctor had his orange hazmat suit, or a spacesuit as he insisted to Clara one time.

One moment, Montreal, a broad-jawed, black-haired man in armor fancier than the others', was ready to make a speech. Next, alarms blared out as a sudden wham brought the shuttle out of course. Max flew off his feet with a surprised yelp, his hands maintaining a firm grip on the railing planted on the ceiling as the others rocked forward and collided with the harnesses.

A long, crystalized limb smashed through the front, crushing the pilot into nothingness before he could do anything. The limb retracted, showing three long, giant talons as it disappeared into the green mist.

"Ah hell, that's the queen!" the pilot exclaimed with wide eyes through his visor. "Better hope we make the landing!"

The shuttle landed on solid ground. Every piece that still hung on the shuttle broke off with each bounce before it came to a grinding halt. The Doctor looked up after swinging the harness up, finding Max checking on the others. With the front gone, a fourth of the team went missing. Everyone else was too injured to move.

Worse yet were cracks forming on the Doctor's faceplate and Max took notice. He gasped to breathe for air. "Let me get that fixed right now." The security chief went for a container nearby that read 'Repair gel'. Swinging it open, he grabbed a canister and sprayed the gel on the faceplate. Within seconds, the cracks vanished.

The Doctor let out a gasp as he found himself able to breathe again. "Thank you."

"Just doing my job."

A roar bellowed and echoed outside the wreckage of a shuttle, causing the ground to shake. The Doctor went past Max and hopped down from the ship. He looked upward, finding the massive crystal creature raising its head to the sky, its jaw with its many, many teeth wide open.

The Doctor knew this problem was far larger than anyone would realize.

* * *

 _Back at the station…_

The elevator raced down. Jocelyn noticed it was slower than she thought. Was it just her or did these Cybermen sabotaged it somehow?

She was alone in this circular and nearly pristine elevator. She felt cramped in her power armor. Only the transparent door in front of her door gave her the view of the station's inner works, and that was very brief as each floor sped by. She wasn't certain if she could tolerate that cheerful bit of music looping on repeat. How anyone could tolerate that for so long would be a mystery to her. Still, she had occupied the time by checking her weapons.

The Wanderer brought up her holorifle and cocked it. Inside, the barrel was filled with four fusion cells, enough for a full round before reloading. That alone brought relief to her.

As she was about to check on her plasma pistol, the Glock-like MPLX Novasurge, a sound chime on an interface next to the door. She brought her hand up in front of it, only to yank it back somewhat when the interface brought forth a moving image of a woman in a uniform like Alexander's but red. The Japanese woman looked young, somewhere in her twenties, with fair skin and dark brown hair.

"Hello? This is Dr. Yoki Sami, chief engineer," the woman spoke, looking at Jocelyn. "Are you receiving this?" Her form flickered and simmered.

Jocelyn's hand tapped on the interface, the button reading 'respond'. "Signal's a little spotty, but I read you loud and clear," she replied.

"We need help with—" The engineer's image flickered once again. "—ybermen have sabotaged the—Only way to disable the overload is at the reactor—."

Jocelyn's eyes grew wide under her helmet as worry started to set in. If what she inferred was right, then not only would many people would die, but the station's destruction would certainly cause chaos in its vicinity. "Are you and OMI safe?" she asked.

"I'm sorry? I didn't catch that."

"Are you two somewhere safe?" Jocelyn repeated.

"Yeah, but not for long. I—"

There was a booming sound playing through the speakers, soon followed by the elevator rating for several seconds. Jocelyn stumbled as she lost her footing for a second. As she regained her balance, she saw the chief engineer's expression on her face turned into that of fear.

"Oh no…" Sami muttered as she turned her head toward the source of the noise. The engineer made a budge as the quality of her image worsened to a point the Wanderer could barely tell what was going on.

"Dr. Yoko, just hold on as long as you can!" the Lone Wanderer exclaimed. She tried to say more, only for Sami's image to vanish.

Jocelyn let out a sullen sigh as her shoulders slumped. She hoped the elevator would bring her in time. After what seemed like minutes to her, it thankfully did stop as the door slid open in front of her.

" _Now arriving at Engineering_ ," a cheerful masculine voice toned out of the intercom.

She stepped outside of the elevator, the stack of holorifle pressed against her shoulder. It was a good thing this weapon had night-vision; there was little in the way of lighting. Looking down the scope, she found the elevator had brought her down to a three-way hallway, each walkway fashioned by a series of pipes and thick wiring. Some of the pipes were leaking with thick steam, obscuring her vision. Moving around a little informed her it shouldn't be cramped for the size of her armor.

But which way should she go? Left, right, or forward? What did Alexander say about which way to go? "As soon as you get out of the elevator, take a left," she remembered the administrator instructing her. "That way, it should give you easy passage to the main reactor room, but hurry. We don't have much time.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed a dark but small sphere hanging down from the ceiling. A blinking red light had followed her every step. The Wanderer couldn't help but wonder who was watching her through that camera. Was it the administrator safely at his office while keeping tabs on any survives on the station, or was it the Cybermen tracking them down?

At the bottom of her heart, she hoped it was Alexander. He brought himself to direct anyone still alive to the escape pods, should the worst come to pass. _Doctor, you better make it through this._

Taking careful steps on the walkway, she noticed a faint red glow traveling through the little holes below her feet. At every passing moment, the light grew slightly brighter. There was also an echo throughout the hallways, and Jocelyn could barely hear a deep, booming voice blaring out, " _Main reactor room compromised! Requesting repairs!_ "

She picked up the pace, dashing down the walkway. She didn't care if the noises she made would attract the attention of either the Cybermen or the Ania. Or maybe both. As cliché as it sounded, it was a race against time. Not only was the chief engineer and the robot in danger, but the reactor would also soon go into a meltdown.

It wasn't long before she couldn't take another step without something or someone shooting at her. As she entered a rather large room with rows of consoles, interfaces, and construction lights, a blue plasma beam grazed her left shoulder, chipping the top of the piece.

" ** _Del-ete. Del-ete!_** " a monotonous voice chanted.

The Lone Wanderer looked up and saw three Cybermen aiming their wrist-mounted guns at her as they descended a wide staircase in unison.

Jocelyn took aim with her holorifle and activated her Pip-Boy's VATS—Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System—increasing her accuracy. Her perception of time had slowed down, adrenaline pumping through her body, her heartbeats pounding against her eardrums.

Two shots and two clusters of holographic cubes whistled through the air, leaving behind blasts in quick succession as they flew straight into the one standing in the middle. The Cyberman's head combusted into a million pieces made of metal and brain matter flying in all directions. The rest of its body fell and slid down the stairs. The others paid no mind to their fallen comrade and continued their push.

They both fired at the same time. Before she knew it, both shots hit her, one in the chest and the other in the head. She stumbled back and there was a loud crack as she closed her eyes for a second. She shook off her daze and opened her eyes, finding her visor had cracked open, exposing her now-angry right eye.

It will be a long night for her to fix her power armor once this was done.

With a furrowed brow and clenched teeth, the Wanderer charged forward, hip-firing her rifle at the nearest Cyberman in the chest before slamming into it with her right shoulder. The impact had sent it rolling towards the console, smashing into it as sparks flew all around. " ** _We… are… superior…_** " That Cyberman twitched and stuttered as electricity overloaded the cyborg's systems before giving it a quick death.

In a single motion, her super sledge in one hand and her rifle in the other, she swung the hammer at the remaining Cyberman with one hand, and its chest caved inward. For a second, the Cyberman looked down at its chest as if it was shocked by the turn of events.

" ** _This can-not be… p-p-oss-i-ble…_** " With its broken arms, the Cyberman tried to fire before it met its fate, its head ripped clean off from the swing of her hammer.

People said she was fierce in battle, but with some cybernetic implants and the T-60 power armor, she bet she could wrestle a Super Mutant Behemoth to the ground and make it cry uncle.

With the last Cyberman down and out, she left the room, loading two fusions cells into her gun. They were stalling her, but she made short work of them.

Now back in the dark hallway, there was a crunching sound as she took a stop. She stopped and lifted her foot, finding that there were crystals growing on the metallic floor, walls, and ceiling.

As impossible as it seemed, Jocelyn couldn't help but find it fascinating somehow.

She followed the trail of crystals, which traveled down the hallway before taking a sharp right. She wasn't quite sure if she could follow the trail, but the sounds of gunfire and growls convinced her otherwise.

She followed the trail, and it led her to a wide long that went to a door sealed by the crystals trailing from the ground. There was a flashing yellow light at the top, with a pack of feral Ania growling as they closed in on two people, one human in a red jumpsuit and one not human. One of the Ania laid on the floor, seemingly dead.

Dr. Yoko was there, slumped against the wall behind her with a pistol in her hand. She was alive but injured. There were pieces of glass sticking out of her right leg. As for her robotic companion, the best way she could describe the robot was a person with a terminal for their head. They wore a black-and-orange padded jumpsuit with gloves of matching colors, the black on their palms. Only the terminal screen displayed a pair of simple eyes and a line for a mouth, with fins at the base of their face.

"Oh, hello!" The robot's screen flashed a smile as they noticed the Wanderer stepping in. The glass creatures also turned their attention to her. "I am OMI, short for Omni Mutual Intelligence, and we would be very grateful if you would help us."

Jocelyn didn't say anything as she readied herself for combat. However, she realized not only the Ania had their attention on her, but to of them went past her in an instant. Her brow furrowing under her helmet, she looked over her shoulder, finding a lone figure standing at the other end of the hallway with a staff in hand, the lighting behind them casting a great shadow before them.

As the shadowy figure went into a combat stance, the staff in both hands and to their side, the glass creatures pounced at the figure, only for one of them to be knocked aside with a swing of the staff. The grunts the figure made sounded masculine with a slight metallic echo to it as another Ania leaped onto the stranger.

Seeing it clawing and chewing on the stranger, the Wanderer aimed her Holorifle and, with the help of VATS, fired once at the glass creature. As the creature turned its back against her, a cluster of holographic cubes collided on it, and it let out a pained yelp. Its grip now weakened, the stranger tossed aside the Ania to his left, crashing into the pipes.

For a second, Jocelyn thought she saw a flash of silver through her scope. Lowering her file, the light here flashed a bright yellow, confirming her assumption. In front of her was very much a Cyberman, much to her dismay. Unlike the others she fought and killed, however, this one had what seemed to be silver clothing underneath his chest piece. His head was rounder and squarish than the usual Cyberman.

"Thanks for helping me out." Something about this tipped her off. His voice wasn't like the monotonous, robotic, and sing-song ones the rest of the Cybermen have.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…" she heard OMI muttered.

Jocelyn turned around to look at Sami as she tried to get up to her feet, seething in pain, the look in her eyes turned wide-eyed when she looked up at the stranger. "Oh hell! Cyberman!" she cried and raised her pistol at the strange Cyberman.

The Cyberman dropped his staff like a bag of bricks, the clanging sound it made echoing down the hallway, and raised his hands up in the air. "Whoa, okay! Let's not get hasty here! If it helps, I surrender."

Jocelyn just stood there, stunned and silent, as she gave the Cyberman a strange look. Well, if anyone could see the look on her face underneath her helmet. She was not expecting that response from a Cyberman, of all things. "What?" she asked, confused. "That doesn't seem…"

"Logical, right?" the Cyberman guessed, finishing her sentence. He chuckled slightly, which confused Jocelyn even further. "It's what I've told the Doctor once a long time ago: to hell with logic!"

His attention was then brought to something moving around, like someone sweeping pieces of glass around. Jocelyn, as well as the others, turned around to see what was formerly a dead Ania on the floor had now risen to its feet.

"Excuse me for a bit." The Cyberman, without warning, swiftly picked up his staff and dashed, leaping over Jocelyn. The sudden force pushing her down made her grunt a little, and struck at the Ania, piercing through its body. The glass creature let out a death wail before he pulled the staff out and crushed its head into a million pieces.

He stood up and latched his staff to his back. "Maybe _now_ I can earn your trust."

"That would be wise of us to do so, methinks," OMI agreed, wrapping one of their arms around the engineer's shoulders as the robot and Yoko began walking. "Just one question: who are you?"

"It's Kroton," the Cyberman answered. "So what are you three up to?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Dr. Yoko demanded before nearly tripping on her bad leg.

Even taking a casual look made Jocelyn realize the wound would get infected without treatment. "Don't move, all right?" she requested, gently holding onto Sami's leg. Sami let out a pained grunt in response as Jocelyn dug into her fanny pack and pulled out one of her stimpaks. "Ready?"

Sami stared at the syringe incredulously. "What's this?"

"It's a stimpak. Speeds up your healing process," Jocelyn explained. "Now hold still."

The engineer flinched at first, but she relented and relaxed, allowing Jocelyn to gingerly drove the syringe into her forearm. The red liquid inside traveled to her bloodstream, and the cuts and gashes all over her leg all washed away, pushing the shards out as the skin on her leg stitched itself back together like cloth in a sewing machine.

"That's… an interesting medical application," Kroton commented, watching the engineer taking one step, then two, before continuing onward at a hurried pace.

"Indeed," Sami agreed before glancing at Kroton. "Look, I appreciate you didn't attack us. Right now, we need all the help we can get. We need to get to the main reactor room. Your brethren…" She caught her breath before continuing. "…the Cybermen have sabotaged it. The sooner we get there, the more likely we can stop it before it can cause catastrophic damage to the station."

"You'd think you would have some sort of safety measures, innit?" Kroton replied with a shrug.

Two dots and a straight line appeared on OMI's screen. They didn't seem to be amused at the sentient Cyberman's remark. "How rude of you!"

The robot passed by, glancing at the Cyberman before catching up to the engineer. Before Jocelyn could catch up with the others, she looked back at the Cyberman while standing a good foot or so taller than him. "You know the Doctor?"

"Indeed, I do," the renegade Cyberman answered. "Long story."


	4. Chapter 3: Blue Moon

**Chapter Three: Blue Moon**

 _Year: 2277  
Location: Jefferson Memorial, Capital Wasteland_

In the rotunda, the circular control room hung above a pool of irradiated water, built around the statue of Thomas Jefferson. The statue itself was perfectly preserved, encased in a tank full of water at the center. Alarms continued to blare out, even as two people were trapped inside the control room with a pale, gray-haired man in a long coat and soldiers in large, hulking power armor with devilish helmets. One of the hostages, a scientist in a lab coat and high heels, was Janice Kaplinski. The other was her father. He still wore his worn-out Vault jumpsuit, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Jocelyn had to hurry before this could get any worse.

She had only reached the top of the stairway, meeting up with Doctor Madison Li, when the man in the long coat made his demand, his hands crossed behind his back. "The person in charge is to step forward _immediately_ and turn over all materials related to this project." There was a twang in his voice, a sign typical for Southern accents. Despite not being able to see his face as she went to the emergency bulkhead, it was clear he was not here with the best intentions in mind.

"That's quite impossible," her father replied, keeping a stern look and tone. "This is a private project; the Enclave has no authority here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

The Enclave? The remnants of the US Government she kept hearing about from Three Dog along with the eyebots flying about in the wasteland?

"Am I to assume, sir, that you are in charge?" the man asked.

"Yes, I'm responsible for this project," her father replied.

"Then I repeat, sir, that you are hereby instructed to immediately hand over all materials related to the purifier."

Jocelyn turned to the console to her right and pressed the button on it. The bulkhead did not open. She pressed it again. Still nothing. No matter how many times she pressed it in frantic motion, the bulkhead would not open. Somebody must have overridden the command.

"I'm sorry, but that's…" She heard her father try to protest but was cut off.

"Furthermore, you are to assist Enclave scientists in assuming control of the administration and operation of this facility at once," the man added.

"Colonel… is it Colonel?" her father guessed. "I'm sorry, but the facility is not operational. It never has been. I'm afraid you're wasting your time here."

"Sir, this is the last time I am going to repeat myself." Despite the professionalism in the colonel's voice, it was clear his patience was wearing thin.

"Colonel, I assure you that this facility will not function," her father lied. "We have never been able to successfully replicate test results."

Jocelyn heard a shot rang out through the glass, followed by a woman's pained cry, and she turned her attention to Janice on the floor, dead, a bloody hole between her eyes. The colonel had a 10mm pistol out, smoke trailing out of it. Jocelyn could only stare out in shock, anger welling up inside her.

"I suggest you comply immediately, sir, in order to prevent any more incidents. Are we clear?" The tone in the colonel's voice remained unchanged.

Her father's nostrils flared. "Yes, Colonel," he seethed. "I'll do whatever you want; there's no need for more violence."

As her father turned his attention to the central console, a wave of fear and panic swept over Jocelyn. Without thinking, she got out her plasma rifle and on the emergency bulkhead with its stock. But the door was too sturdy to crack open.

A small explosion rumbled in the control room, and the Geiger counter on her Pip-Boy started to tick as the radiation began to leak in. The soldiers collapsed in agony, the overwhelming radiation inside killing them swiftly and silently. The colonel was next, but not before he pulled a syringe out of his coat and struck it into his forearm.

Standing among the corpses, her father hobbled to the bulkhead. Her hand shaking, she dropped her rifle as she pressed her hand on the glass in response to her father's.

"Run… run!" her father pleaded, looking at his daughter one last time. His body crumbled to the floor next to the colonel.

Her knees gave up, and she fell. She wanted the radiation to kill her in hopes she could be with her father in a better world. She went through hell and back to reunite with her father.

"We have to get out of here," Madison Li called out. "They'll be coming for us next. We've got to evacuate now!"

" _Look, it just… you have to know these things. I'm not going to be around to hold your hand forever_ ," she remembered her father telling her the day before he left the Vault.

Why did it have to end here?

* * *

 _Year:_ _4356_ _  
Location: Engineering Core, Icarus Station_

"Ah, hang on. Allow me," OMI insisted as the group approached the door. The sign above it flashed, _ENGINEERING CORE_. The robot opened the panel, which exposed circuit boards and loose wiring. Jocelyn had to pull her head back when sparks crackled and few out of the thing. "My word, it's worse than I thought! Those Cybermen were quite thorough, weren't they?"

"I am one. Well, technically," Kroton remarked, looking behind them in case any _other_ Cybermen would get the jump on them.

"What about the backup generator?" Jocelyn asked. "Wouldn't they go after that, too?"

"If they wrecked the backup generator, we would all be dead," Dr. Yoko answered, watching OMI stretching their right hand as mini appendages emerged and unfolded out of their fingers. "I must say, this will never get old."

"Indeed!" OMI replied cheerfully, their face-screen flashing a smile before thrusting the little devices into the wires and board and started working. The tiny whirs and whines came of those little machines as the mending of the wires came together. The robot pulled out the burnt-out circuit board, grabbing a fresh and unused one of out of their chassis and inserted it into the slot inside the panel, all with a smirk flashing on their face. "And… done!" They tapped on the interface and the door slid open.

"Alexander was _not_ kidding about you," Jocelyn commented with astonishment. It was not every day when something like this happened. Had she always missed this? That feeling in her chest… did she?

"He hasn't paid me enough," OMI grumbled. She had rarely found a robot to be so emotional like that.

The group stepped inside without incident.

There was little light here, supported only by holographic interfaces flickering and hellish red flashes from a giant, sparking collider set in the center. Jocelyn's headlight revealed something else, much to the shock of Dr. Yoko and OMI. There were bodies laid all over the floor down the staircase in a random pattern. Even from a distance, they could tell a few of them were shot down by Cybermen, but others had some sort of growth that gleamed in the sporadic light. In the empty space between the consoles, there was a metal-rimmed circle laid out on the floor.

They stepped down, the Wanderer and Kroton taking point and their weapons at the ready. The Wanderer turned around and noticed a sense of dread rising among the doctor and the robot, judging by how shaky its face looked on its screen. Jocelyn was no stranger to these heinous acts, that was for certain. She was sure Kroton was, but him being a renegade Cyberman, his expression remained indecipherable.

"Do you know any of these people, Dr. Yoko?" Kroton inquired.

The engineer said nothing, still stunned by the carnage laid out before them. It only took her stubborn legs pushing her down the stairs to bring her out of her stupor. "…Yes. I… did my best to remember every one of their names."

After they stepped off the stairs and spread out, Yoko went toward one of the bodies and knelt beside it. "Marta Diana. That's who she was, before, well…" She stood up and pointed at another body, draped over a console. "This one was Niko Pingov." Another point of her finger. "And L-Lapo Vidal, and…" Her hand shook as a sharp breath escaped her body. "I can't mourn them if we all die now. We have a station to save." There was now a determined look on her face as she scanned the area. "OMI, could you see if you can turn on the lights?" She turned at Jocelyn and the Cyberman. "Wanderer, Kroton, help me start up the restart sequence."

Jocelyn nodded and set out to one of the consoles the engineer guided her to.

"One question, though," said the engineer. "Do you know a thing or two about nuclear physics?"

"Shall I refer to you the differences between fusion and fission?" Jocelyn replied.

"Formal education?" Dr. Yoko guessed.

"More or less," Jocelyn answered, hesitant and embarrassed. While she got her education thanks to paying attention in class, she also received less… formal education from science textbooks and plenty of experience. The problem was, however…

"Uh…" She looked at the now-overwhelming number of buttons on the console, the screen above flashing red along with numbers counting down by the second.

 _MELTDOWN IMMINENT IN 4:34:92_

 _4:33:49_

 _4:32:62_

"Is this thing user-friendly?" The Lone Wanderer squeaked urgently. "It's not the kind of user interface I'm used to."

"Yes, thankfully," Dr. Yoko said, as if she had sighed. She had to step over one of her dead co-workers to another console, much to her chagrin. She turned her attention toward the Wanderer. "Just do as the interface says and it'll be fine. I hope. If it gives out some weird or contradicting command, refer to me."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then you and every other organic on this station would suffer a slow and excruciating death as life support shuts down," OMI answered while tapping commands on their console left and right. "I have no intention of pressuring you, but there you go."

"What OMI said," Dr. Yoko remarked before going back to her console. "Being helpful does wonders, doesn't it?" A mirthless laugh escaped her lips. Pressure sure did funny things to people. "Everybody ready?" the engineer called out.

"Keeping watch," Kroton answered, his staff in hand as he scanned their surroundings.

"Ready," OMI also answered.

"I'm ready," Jocelyn nodded.

The Lone Wanderer knew plenty of things about nuclear physics as well as other scientific fields ranging from chemistry to life science to biology. She also knew her way around a RobCo terminal, including those very top-secret, government terminals. If there was a bone to mend together or a nasty cut to stitch, she could do that. And she could get a robot to do her bidding or have them self-destruct at her whim.

The countdown continued.

 _3:44:73_

 _3:43:12_

Jocelyn pressed a button after the engineer gave the signal, which turned green immediately. Dr. Yoko was right: the interface was easy, especially as a list of instructions scrolled across the screen, accompanied by images depicting the fusion power generator that was glowing at the center. She looked up to find tiny little robots flying around the generator, using little arms to mend gashes all over it. The color of the generator's light slowly turned away from red to blue.

 _3:22:77_

 _3:21:44_

 _3:20:89_

She hoped the others were making progress.

"Oh, do I get to join the fun or is that not allowed among your little group of would-be saviors?" It was an unfamiliar voice, feminine, middle-aged, with a pompous accent. It took them nearly an instant to find the source, as Jocelyn and the others turned to see a woman in a black blouse and high heels standing in the metallic circle, now glowing a bluish light around her. Having an angular face and a narrow nose, this woman who appeared out of nowhere had rather pronounced cheekbones and wild, black hair that tied in an updo.

"Who are you?" Jocelyn demanded, now looking at the woman who had piercing, cold-blue eyes. She was ready to draw her weapon out.

"That's the Master. A Time Lord, like the Doctor, and his archenemy, to put it simply," Kroton answered, his stance readied as he cautiously approached the woman.

The 'Master' rolled her eyes as she placed her hand on her hip. "Please. Time _Lady_. I'm Missy, short for Mistress. I couldn't very well call myself the _Master_ , now do I?" Every word she had spoken had a hint of a sneer to it. She turned her gaze at the renegade Cyberman. "You." She pointed at him. "Haven't I met you somewhere? Well, I used to be a different person back then, so the memory's all… jumbled up. Would you be so kind as to jog my memory? Just a teeny, tiny bit?"

"Yes, that's correct. You look different, but you're still the same nutjob all the same," Kroton retorted. "Last time we met, I trapped you somewhere where you couldn't escape."

"Yes yes, I remember now." Missy waved off dismissively. "You fought off an immortal samurai and won, taking control of the Glory and acting as its guardian or some sort." She scoffed, still eyeing the Cyberman. "What? Does the prospect of godhood bore you or were you kicked out of the job?"

"Center of the Omniversal Spectrum. A… guardian of the multiverse, in other words," Kroton corrected Missy. "Not that it matters to you."

"Nevermind that. How did you hijack this channel?" Dr. Yoko questioned.

"So this thing is a holographic projection, then?" Jocelyn tried to ask.

"In a way. If I remember correctly, this station is equipped with quantum entanglement communicators," Kroton remarked. "You should try it someday."

"That sounds fascinating, but that's not we're here for." Jocelyn. looked at the Time Lady before her. "And I take it you were the one who started this whole mess."

"And what makes you say that?" Missy shot back. "Oh, how would I _love_ to hear it!"

"You're you. You do love to cause chaos and destruction wherever you go," OMI responded.

Missy curled her lips. "It's true, I do cause a lot of death and destruction." She let out a faux gasp, her eyes wide as if she mocked all of them. "Oh, were you referring to the Cyberman? Well, it _is_ true I led them here."

The Lone Wanderer grunted in disgust. "Why?"

"Try to keep up. Although…" The Time Mistress hummed childishly, turning her attention toward her. "Clara, Clara, Clara… Where's Clara? Don't tell me the Doctor replaced her with _you_!"

 _1:50:59_

This Missy's words would have given Lone Wanderer some offense, but she recovered. "Does that matter? We have lives to save and you're distracting us."

The mistress clasped her hands together in childlike glee. "Oh goodness me! It would be fascinating to see how many lives would be lost by your spectacular failure!"

Jocelyn tried to ignore her as she, the engineer, and the robot refocused on their respective consoles.

"I wonder how the Doctor is faring, all stuck with who-knows-what on that planet, hm?" Missy pondered.

 _Just keep ignoring her, just keep ignoring her…_ Jocelyn told herself.

 _1:01:82_

 _1:00:02_

 _0:59:44_

Jocelyn was starting to get worried as she took a quick look up at the generator. It hadn't transitioned further. She looked down at her screen, which flashed _ERROR_. Undeterred, she entered in another command, one that should circumvent. This shouldn't be different from hacking RobCo terminals, right?

"How's it looking on your end?" Jocelyn asked.

"Getting there," OMI answered.

 _0:18:46_

"Any second now!" Kroton called out. For a moment, he was about ready to go for the generator and try to disable it somehow.

"Almost… there," the engineer grunted.

The numbers on the screen, on every screen, now showed a single number.

 _9…_

 _8…_

 _7…_

 _6…_

 _5…_

 _Thinkthinkthinkthink!_ Jocelyn thought to herself. She looked over the commands and found one: restart the generator. With a shaky hand, she pressed the button and waited.

 _3…_

 _2…_

 _1…_

And everything went dark, like a blanket of darkness had washed over the room. Then, the generator glowed a calm blue and one by one, the consoles flickered to life. Both Jocelyn and Dr. Yoko let out a sigh of relief, now that the generator was restored in the nick of time.

"Oh! Well, how about that!" Missy appeared once again, more than a little disappointed. "So, you've succeeded in saving the day. How marvelous." Her arms were crossed in front of her. "Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things. Everything dies, one way or another. You all know that. I mean, why bother, anyway?"

Jocelyn frowned and let out a sigh. She had enough of this. And she was tired, oh so very tired of this.

With her eyes narrowing, she straightened her posture and stepped toward the quantum projection of the Time Lady, the great height of her power armor towering over her. "I'm not gonna let you hurt any more people."

Missy only rolled her eyes in response. "Yes, well… how are you going to follow on that statement if there is something scary and nasty coming your way? Especially without a certain Doctor?"

As if on cue, the projection had vanished, leaving her and the others alone with the unearthly growls and screeches echoing in the core room.

"Okay, I got some good news and some bad news," Dr. Yoko announced, turning away from her console as she and OMI gathered around Kroton.

"Let's start with the good news," Jocelyn replied, unholstering her Tommy gun-like weapon and readied herself, the stock pressed against her right shoulder.

"Well, according to our readings, the generator reset had released an EMP of a sort, rendering the Cybermen and their ships inert," said the engineer.

"Can it do that?" Jocelyn wondered.

Before the engineer or OMI could speak out, Kroton asked, "Nevermind that. You can explain later if we get the chance. What about the bad news?"

OMI looked up and jolted back, a look of terror with a pair of shocked, cartoonish eyes and a gaping mouth appearing on their screen. "Oh my! The Ania have gotten here!"

The others joined OMI and looked up as well. Traveling along the walls and the catwalk above were a swarm of Ania of all colors and sizes.

"What OMI said," the engineer remarked, her face being indecipherable and stoic.

Jocelyn fired her Tommy gun, the laser capacitor weapon. Unlike a regular Tommy gun, this one fire laser beams and at an alarming rate. A burst of fire had grazed several of them, but more came. Some even leaped and bounced off the walls. Few ran up to the group, only to be swatted aside with a sweep of the rogue Cyberman's staff. Another charged at him, only for its toothy jaw to bite down on the staff, and a struggle ensued.

It wasn't enough for the Wanderer and the Cyberman to hold them all off. Two of the Ania slashed and diced at Jocelyn, leaving behind deep gashes all over her legs and chest piece. Before she could retaliate, pieces of glass slammed against her head. For a moment she saw nothing but whiteness before finding herself on the ground, pinned down on the floor by another one of the Ania, this one some bizarre mix of a lion's body with the head of a beetle, its pincers gnawing at her helmet. Her helmet cracked, then split in two as she wrestled the creature by its neck. She ignored the glass piercing her right as the Ania pushed even further on her until she could barely feel the pincers touching her cheeks.

Then she felt something heavy laying all over her, and she could only move the arm on the glass creature. She could feel the armor all over her being torn apart like scissors cutting through paper. Through gritted teeth, she tossed aside the Ania and found herself face down on the floor.

She could hear the back of her armor unfolding, and someone had yanked Jocelyn out before the armor could turn into a pile of scrap metal or any of those glass creatures could strike the fatal blow against her. She stood up to her feet and looked to Kroton, who was no worse for wear. The robot and the engineer were already making a break for it up to the stairs.

"We have to get out of here!" Kroton exclaimed. Jocelyn was more than inclined to agree. In what little time was spared, she grabbed her packs, bags, and weapons and made her way with the others. As she was the last one to dash through the exit, three Anias, the size of cats, leaped from the middle of the stairway only to meet an untimely end as she closed the door tight on them.

The Wanderer wanted to rest up for a moment, but she had a feeling this place wasn't exactly the safest. "Can it hold?" she asked, her hands on her knees. She paused, realizing what they had sealed the Ania into. "What about the generator? Wouldn't these things wreck it just like the Cybermen had done?"

"It'll hold. The drones are automated to make any further repairs and are programmed to fire if any of them get too close," Dr. Yoko explained after resting her back against the wall. She closed her eyes for a moment and her nostrils flared, letting her shoulders slump for a moment.

"Shall we report this as a success to the administrator, ma'am?" OMI wondered as a pixelated image of Alexander appeared on its screen.

The engineer nodded, straightened her posture, and the others quickly agreed. With that, the four sauntered down the hallway.

* * *

 _Back on the planet…_

"Bloody hell," Max Montreal gasped, a mix of awe and terror all over his face, as he caught up to the Doctor. "Any idea how we're gonna approach this?"

The giant creature bellowed its roar once again. In a way, it was majestic, a hum like that of a tuning fork or a whale crying out in the Earth's oceans.

 ** _Help… lost my…_**

The Doctor blinked. "What?" He turned around at Max. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Max responded in confusion.

The Doctor turned back and looked up at the Ania queen. From where the two men stood, it was close, only about a few hundred or so meters away from their position. Nevertheless, it never diminished its overwhelming size, standing on its multiple legs at several stories. Its scales, all crystalline and stalactite, gleamed in the thick, sickly-green mist, contrasting with the barren, rocky land it stood on. Its head could easily be compared to that of a dragon, its horns curved like a ram's.

 ** _Did not mean… hurt…_**

An idea sprung in the Doctor's mind. He had communicated with animals before, even a T-rex that swallowed the TARDIS and spat it out in 19th century London one time.

He stretched out his right arm, his fingers on his left hand pressed against his helmet where his temples would be and closed his eyes. With a slow exhale, he opened his hand, as if making an offer of friendship.

"What are you doing, Doctor? What's going on?" The chief approached the Time Lord but stopped dead short when he shushed him.

"Talking, so _shut up_!"

In a matter of seconds, the Doctor could sense with his mind's eye a presence, giant and grand, and he could feel something looking back at him.

"Can you hear me? Can you see me?" he called out.

There was a booming bass, a rumble happening all around him. He assumed the Ania queen was resonating with his inquiry, but he also assumed it was moving its massive body around.

 ** _Yes. Can hear you. Help us. Scared…_**

"How can I help you?" the Doctor asked.

It was then he felt another presence residing—or to put it more accurately—trapped within the Ania queen. Two, in fact. One was malevolent, chaotic, and pulsing with a vile power that made the Time Lord's stomach churn. The other felt tranquil, orderly, and peaceful but somehow wrong, and he had no idea why. The two forces, despite being each other's opposites in every way, collided with one another. If he could hazard a guess, two vied for control over the queen. For what purpose, he did not know.

 ** _Pain. Hurts…_**

Suddenly, as if these known beings became aware of him, pushed him out and back to reality. Either that or his concentration broke. As he opened his eyes, he found himself off his feet.

Max was off his feet as well but quickly recovered. "Talk about using the Force. Are you alright Doctor?" He offered to help the Time Lord get back upon his face.

Taking Max's hand, the Doctor stood up with a grunt escaping his lips. He looked around, finding the ground had cracked in many places and the field of crystals and strange trees below had all but decimated. "Eh, I've been through worse," he answered. His condition, though none worse for wear, did worry him. The destruction around him did.

The two men turned and found themselves face to face with the queen of the Ania, its beads for its many eyes gazing right back at them. Taken by surprise, Max cried out a yelp and was ready to aim his rifle…

…only for the Doctor to push it aside with furrowed brows and a frown.

"The hell are you doing?" Max asked incredulously.

"I'm—looking—for a way—to help her!" the Doctor seethed, wiggling the weapon left and right.

The look on the security chief's face said it all, a mix of confusion and anger, which was typical for a human being put in a stressful situation. "We help it!?" he repeated the Doctor's words. "After it tried to kill us and injured about half of my crew, the other half missing, and caused our shuttle to crash?"

" _Yes_." The Doctors' voice turned dark. "Because it's the right thing to do! She never wanted to hurt us! Whatever's happening to her, she was cut off from the rest of her species. She is calling for help!"

"Really? You sound so sure."

The Doctor nodded. "I'm always right." He let off a toothy smirk.

"Well, there were a few instances where—ah, what the hell," Max sighed, and the Doctor dropped his grip on the gun as the chief's anger began to recede. "I need to check on my crew, but I couldn't leave you here…" His posture straightened, but his face cringed with anguish.

"I appreciate the offer, Max. I do. Tend to your crew's wounds, call for evac. And look for other survivors, for God's sake! They could be alive for all we know! Everybody gets out of this alive. You hear me?"

Max's lips curled, the fog from his helmet coming from his nostrils flaring, and he saluted. "Of course. Godspeed, Doctor."

"Thank you."

The Doctor and the security chief went their separate ways, the chief disappearing into the mist.

The time traveler inhaled then exhaled, watching the Ania queen lowering her head. He paused, pointing at the giant crystal creature with an incredulous look in his eyes. "So… they're on your back, then?"

The creature silently stared back at him.

"And you want me to climb on your back."

No response, though the Doctor swore he heard a rumble, until…

 ** _Hurry…_**

The Doctor snapped back into action and nodded, noting the queen's urgency loud and clear. "Well, I _do_ hope, and with the utmost sincerity, that we all get out of this alive. That would be bad on my conscious, yeah?" he mumbled to no one in particular as he began climbing over the Ania's face and reached the top, which he found surprisingly easier than he thought. He never was one for climbing, anyway.

He stumbled on the first few steps as he nearly let out a yelp. While the Ania's back was _massive,_ to say the least, thus hard to fall off by accident, getting jabbed by crystals left and right was on the bottom of his wish list. If that had been on his list at all.

Ahead of him was a forest of crystal formations. It was thick enough for the mist to only reach up to his ankles. It was also thick enough for him, unfortunately enough to find himself having trouble traversing around and finding a feasible path. Stepping by one large crystal formation, glowing bright pink, he felt a jab at his right arm. He glanced at it, only to find it hadn't pierced through his spacesuit at all.

He trenched on, going in deeper and deeper, the forest ever so becoming thicker with more crystals, meaning the Time Lord had to squeeze through a hole at one point. At the corner of his eyes, as he slipped out, he saw something moving swiftly, only to find nothing around him. A chill ran down his spine, and breathing became apparent with fog gathering on his faceplate.

He tapped the side of his head. "Max?" he called out. "Max, can you read me?"

Only static answered back.

The Doctor scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Ah. Of course. Alone with no way of outside help. It's a terrible idea, wouldn't recommend it for anyone, but somebody has to do it. And that somebody is me."

He was ready to continue undeterred. Wherever these presences were, he had no clue. Making another step, the tiny green crystals crunching underneath his feet, he stopped when he was more than certain that he heard something. It was like someone was right next to him, somehow whispering in his hear past his helmet.

 _Doctor… Oh, Doctor…_

That voice sounded familiar. Who was that, he wondered. He looked around for the source as he picked up the pace. Past the dimming bioluminescent crystals, there were two lights shining in the dark distance. One was a pale blue, and the other a dark red.

There was another whisper now, this one deep and foreboding.

 **Doctor.**

He couldn't ignore it. He _had_ to know where these voices came from, why they were speaking to him, and whether they were the cause of the Ania queen's pain. Why did they call out his name, anyway?

Traversing to the lights was easier than squeezing through a hole. All he had to do was go between two cliffsides, the gap more than large enough for him to go through. He sauntered forward until he looked down a whole, where he could see two strange shards embedded at the bottom. One was a clear-sky blue, crystalline object much like the rest of the queen's body while the other was an uncanny mix of flesh and metal.

He climbed down the hole and reached out tentatively as he wiggled his fingers. Grunting, he grabbed the shards and… Nothing. Nothing happened at all.

He was relieved as he pulled the shards out and he heard the Ania queen's bellow once more. This time with much more clarity than the painful gutturals.

 ** _Thank you._**

He sighed. He scanned his surroundings after climbing out. "All in a day's work. Don't you suppose there could you could make an easy way out of… you?"

 ** _It will be done._**

Everything around him rumbled as crystals and rock had cleared out, making a pathway, an opening to the outside world. With nothing else but to move forward, the Time Lord made his way into the passageway.

He placed the blue shard into his right hand and tapped the side of his helmet again. "Max? Max, can you hear me?"

"I hear you, Doctor." Max's face appeared on the Doctor's faceplate. The background behind him indicated that he was in another shuttle. "I saw the Ania queen calming down, so I assume your crazy method worked."

The Time Lord stopped in his tracks with a look that was nothing short of serious. "That's obvious," he deadpanned. He continued walking. "How are your crew?"

Max sighed, lowering his head. He made it clear he wouldn't like what Max would say next. "A few of them died. The rest will be taken to the infirmary at the station."

The Doctor's hearts sank. He knew there was nothing anyone could do, but he wished he could have done better. "I'm sorry."

"I know, Doctor. They knew what they signed up for, but…" Max hesitated, his eyes welling up with tears as he wiped them down.

"It didn't make things any easier," the Time Lord finished.

"Yeah," Max replied. "Your friend managed to override the overload. From what I gathered, she had help from a rogue Cyberman."

The Doctor paused and blinked several times. The news hit him like a bag of bricks. "I'm sorry? Did you just say a Cyberman? A _rogue_ Cyberman? How's this possible? Who's this Cyberman?"

"Kroton, I think that's his name. You know him?"

The Time Lord sighed. "A long time ago. I'll explain later. Over and out."

With that, Max nodded before his screen vanished. The Doctor continued trekking to the light outside. Still, he smiled. It was a small but warm smile. "I knew she could do it," he thought out loud. "But Kroton? That isn't a name I've heard in a _long_ time. I wonder why he was here…"

* * *

 _Location: The TARDIS control room_

The cloister bell rang out once, then twice, and one of the consoles screens turned on of its own accord. At first, it was nothing but a random string of numbers and words, all without rhyme or reason. Eventually, the screen flicked into lines of code that read out:

 _RIFT DETECTED_

 _SEVERITY: RISING, RISK OF DANGER_

 _SIZE: STILL SMALLER THAN BELGIUM_

 _LOCATION: EARTH?_

 _EXACT COORDINATES… UNKNOWN_

The screen turned black.


	5. Chapter 4: Come Go With Me

**Chapter Four: Come Go With Me**

 _Year: 2283  
Location: Chicago, the Midwest_

They were trapped in an old freight car they used as shelter the night before. Their enemies were closing in on all sides and a sandstorm swept across the city, covering everything in a blanket of sand. These crumbling ruins were once skyscrapers, the pride of the Old World. It was fortunate she was in her new T-60 power armor. Otherwise, her eyes would hurt like hell.

"I always wanted to see Chicago. Never knew what it was until ED-E told me. But it could do without all the murderous, rampaging robots here."

A beep in protest came from a floating Sputnik-shaped robot. It was an eyebot and a unique one at that. The Courier called him ED-E—short for Eyebot Duraframe Subject E. His old master, Dr. Whitley, died while she raided the Enclave's mobile base years ago. Or at least, that was what the Courier told her.

"Not you, ED-E!"

Even as they were in danger, the man who called himself the Courier found a way to make a joke.

She turned to him, who had crouched next to her. He wore a military helmet with red lens that covered his chiseled and scared face, protecting it from headshots and his eyes from sandstorms. He also wore a Vault jumpsuit, the number 21 marked on his back. From his neck to his shins, leather paddings covered parts of his body.

"Quiet, you two!" Jocelyn quietly hushed the two and poked her head out. She raised the holorifle the Courier gave her and looked through the scope.

As the winds intensified, silhouettes moved in the distance—and closing in fast. There were dozens of humanoid-shaped robots, no doubt the infantry. Accompanying them were two spider-shaped behemoths of robots with cannons large enough to prove their immense firepower, manufactured and sent by the Calculator.

According to old Brotherhood archives, the Calculator was a unique computer system that used human brains for processing, not unlike robobrains. Decades ago, a renegade Brotherhood faction destroyed the Calculator, but somebody found hosts for the vast machine years later.

A laser beam flew across the street, missing Jocelyn's head by mere inches when she ducked. Despite the laser's intense heat, the freight car surprisingly held up.

She bet one of them was an assaultron. These feminine robots were fast and deadly, their heads equipped with powerful laser beams and razor-sharp dual blades in their arms for close-quarter combat.

She turned to the Courier once more. She couldn't help but imagine the smirk hiding underneath his helmet.

"We're in a city tag-teamed by nukes, we're fighting an army of robots, and we're knee-deep in brass and power cells. None of this makes sense!" the Courier remarked.

Jocelyn sighed. "What's the best course of action?"

The Courier pointed to a random direction and her head turned toward the military outpost nearby. It was abandoned, and they had destroyed the turrets that were mounted on the rooftop in their first go.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

"Yeah. It has to have some weapons we missed in our first sweep." He looked and patted his robotic friend. "ED-E, listen to me. You gotta fly far and fly fast, okay?"

ED-E beeped in protest again.

"Don't give me that! You know me. There's a non-zero chance I'll make it through this."

"A non-zero chance? So there's somehow a negative chance in there," Jocelyn replied.

"Laugh it up. Trust me on this one, okay? I know what I'm doing," he insisted.

With some reluctance, she nodded. "Need my power armor?"

This gave the Courier some pause. He seemed to be contemplating her offer when he rubbed the back of his neck. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but… how good's that fusion core?"

"Still pretty fresh," she answered.

The Courier nodded, and the back of her power armor unfolded as she hopped out and folded back afterward.

"I'll cover your flank. Just… be careful," she urged him as he hopped inside the power armor.

"Loud and clear." With a thumbs up, he hopped out of the freight car and charged into the raging sandstorm.

She could only hope that plan of his would work. If it didn't, then he had made a death wish. She can take on many things: deathclaws, malfunctioning robots, elite Enclave soldiers. Hell, even aliens, of all things. But giant robots deadlier than Chimera tanks? Their chances of survival would feel low to anyone else.

She took a deep breath to settle her nerves and steadied her aim. She fired her holorifle, taking out a foot soldier going after the Courier in a single shot. ED-E, defying his master's orders, fired its blue laser at the assaultron who fired on them. He got out of the laser's path when the feminine robot charged and fired, unscathed. The assaultron tumbled forward to the ground as bolts of laser and protons hit its legs.

The Courier dashed across the street, taking out a sentry bot with a few well-placed shots from his assault rifle, causing enough damage for the bot to overcharge and explode into a million pieces. The damaged assaultron dragged itself and grabbed his ankle, making him stumble a few steps forward. He pulled out his semi-automatic pistol and fired at the robot at the same time as Jocelyn did, turning the damn thing into scrap.

More robots converged on the Courier as he ran closer to the building. He shoved a few along the way though one managed to stab him in his side with a blade. Blood trailed down his body as he burst the door open with his good leg and stepped inside.

Now all she and ED-E had to do was hold the line. She fired once, twice at each of the robotic soldiers, reloading the holorifle every so often.

As if it happened instantly, she looked up to the Courier standing on the rooftop, lofting a large, handheld catapult on his right shoulder—a Fat Man. Several mini-nukes were beside him.

He grabbed one of the mini-nukes, stuffed it into the Fat Man, and fired. The mini-nuke landed on the top of one giant robot, leaving behind a blinding, devastating mushroom cloud that blasted anyone in its vacancy. The behemoth of a robot crumbled, landing on top of a large squad of robots.

Jocelyn was knocked off her feet. Meanwhile, ED-E crashed into the wall behind him with a pained noise. The freight car rattled, nearly flying off the ground. She grabbed the eyebot and stepped forward, using the momentum of the car to put it back into place.

Just as the Courier loaded and launched another mini-nuke, another behemoth turned and fired its cannons at his spot. Pieces of rock and metal flew in all directions. The top of the building collapsed, and the rest of the infrastructure followed.

What remained now were demolished robots all over. Where the building once stood, a pile of rock and rebar were in its place. She looked through the scope to double-check. Still nothing. His body was nowhere in sight.

ED-E squealed in anguish and zipped out of the old train. Jocelyn could only stare in shock.

 _No. He couldn't have gone out like that_ , she told herself as she stumbled out of the freight car. _He was tougher than that. He could have gotten out of the way and landed safely._ She hoped that was the case, but if he didn't, she wouldn't know what to do.

The sandy winds raged on…

* * *

 _Year: 1607  
Location: Somewhere in Hungary, Earth_

Deep in the dungeons of the castle, there was a massive and complex machine. It was originally built for examining particles of the universe. Within the machine known as the collider, there laid a transparent orb mounted on a plain pillar. The collider whirred and the disks moved around the orb, with a rift in time and space that was slowly expanding. Through the rift were distant worlds and ages of the past and future, overlapping one another as if they were layers of onions.

"What an incredible sight, I must say!" Missy's associate, Azwel, commented with a gleeful smile. The two observed through the monitor mounted on the console from a room high above, safe from the force and pull of the rift. If she hadn't seen everything at this point, Missy would be inclined to agree. But the Time Lady was neither pressed or in awe. Without moving her head, she focused her sight on the scholar.

"You do see it, yes? The beauty, the juxtaposition of order and chaos, all around this _magnificent_ orb!" he was as giddy as a child in a candy shop, with his hands shaking in excitement. He caked on like a madman he was. "Oh, wunderbar! So much potential for the human race!"

One thing was certain of him was that his madness could match her own. Calling himself the Savior of Humanity supported that assumption. Azwel was almost sickly pale and lean, tall for his time, with strange star-like markings all over his wrinkled face. His dark robes were rimmed with gold, having elaborate and extravagant decorations all over, with golden gauntlets on his hands. The left gauntlet had a blue crystal embedded on its back while the right had a red crystal instead. He once told her these were the shards of Soul Calibur and Soul Edge respectively, weapons that grant their users powers. Despite his long hair turning white, Azwel did well for his age. Even his eyes had a slight, golden glow to them.

She couldn't help but sigh in indignation. "Yes, yes. I see _exactly_ what you mean." She straightened her posture as she placed a hand on her hip. "Shall I try to ignore you while you rabble on like an idiot?"

Azwel balled his hand, brought it up to his face, and coughed in embarrassment. "Ah… my apologies." Still grinning, he turned and looked back at her, his hand now rubbing his bearded chin. "Might I ask that your attempt at contacting your universe was a success?"

Her lips curled. How would she put this when tact was not her strong suit? "Well," she trailed off, pacing around for no reason. "If you call sending metal men to the far future at a… space station, only to have them screw up as a success, then yes."

Azwel rubbed his temples together. "Is there a method to your madness or is it all random?"

"It varies from moment to moment," Missy shrugged playfully. "Sometimes I just like you; other times I might stab you in the back when you least expect it."

He gave her a strange look. "You're rather forthcoming. Are you certain you're joking?"

"Oh, yes I am," she giggled childishly with a dismissive wave of her hand.

The echoes of footsteps bouncing off the walls at the stairway interrupted the madman's spiel, and a dark-haired man, barely into his twenties, in a simple leather armor had entered the large chamber. For a moment, he found himself dumbstruck the massive collider before him before he turned his attention to the two standing by. His skin was pale, and his eyes were an unnatural red, the irises a golden-yellow. Missy wouldn't find it quite revolting. After all, she had seen worse things in her lives.

"Sir Azwel, Madam er… Missy?" said the messenger, a slight vibration in his voice. He didn't seem to be sure how he would properly address her.

Missy turned and gave the messenger an incredible annoyed look. "Yes, what is it?" An awkward silence filled the metallic, well-lit room. "Spit it out, already!"

The messenger, the poor sod that he was, gulped and nodded. "Graf Dumas wants to see both of you. Immediately," he answered. Almost immediately, he turned and went back up the stairs.

Azwel let out a disgusted scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Pitiful creatures, aren't they? Then again, who am I to judge?" he commented as he left the observation room. "Shall we?"

"If we must. I have other things to do, wanton destruction and all, but I suppose I could fit that oh very pointless meeting into my very crowded schedule," Missy answered.

She followed close behind him, traversing through the maze-like corridors of the dungeon, the illumination only supported by the touches mounted on the stone walls. The two went by the torture chambers, ignoring the cries and pleas of the victims soon meeting their untimely and painful ends. They also passed by the cages, the many bars rattled by chimeras behind them, hungry for blood. As they entered a large room with a bridge over a floor far below, Missy glanced around and saw large golems and doll-like automatons working on the pipes connected to the collider before continuing.

Eventually, they came upon a large, wooden double-door reinforced by steel. It opened on its own, and they stepped out of the dark and cold dungeon and into the ginormous and glamorous of the castle. Above them was a chandelier swinging at the whims of gravity, the walls decorated with detailed paintings and landscapes. Through the large windows, it was close to sundown, the orange rays of sunlight shining through them, but it would not be for much longer for the night. Unusual for a castle of that size, it was empty save for the two of them and the messenger, who beckoned them to follow him.

They were led to the hallways and out on the balcony, a compass-like pattern carved onto the stone, and the messenger went back inside without a word. Missy could hear the screeches of the giant birds patrolling the castle. She was accustomed to noises like these. The outer walls were well-fortified save for one gap at the far end, where a lone figure stood at the edge.

The figure, a man standing tall, was covered from head to toe in dark-blue armor, crowned with a horned, bat-like helmet. Red hair trailed down past his back, and his black, gold-rimmed cape softly flapped in the wind. The most noticeable thing about him was his horribly deformed right arm, twisted into a mess of hardened flesh and spikes with a three-digit claw for his hand.

Azwel briefly bowed before his master. "How may we serve you, Graf Dumas?"

The lord turned around to them, his eyes glowing red beneath his helmet. In his left hand was a giant sword covered in flesh. Many tales of this world have said about Soul Edge, known to many as the Sword of Salvation. In truth, it was a demonic weapon. Those who grasped its hilt fell under its curse, enslaved by its desire to feed on souls and turning them into a bloodthirsty monster.

The giant eye blinked and, for a moment, glared at Missy, making her shiver a little. She had been to the Dalek sewers and she still found that creepy. The first time they had met, she almost gagged at the stench swirling around him. The lord was Nightmare, the Azure Knight.

" **My patience grows thin with each passing day,** " Nightmare growled. His voice boomed with a greater vibration than the messenger's voice. " **Tell me of your progress, Azwel.** "

Azwel drew a deep breath, sweat traveling down his brow like a river. Missy couldn't help but grin a little, her posture prim and proper. "It has been going well, my lord," she answered calmly. "Though I've met the Doctor's companions. One an old friend, the other who was rather new at this sort of thing."

"Hmmm…. Interesting…" The scholar rubbed his chin in contemplative thought. "What a fascinating thing you have discovered. I wish you would have mentioned this earlier."

" **The Doctor? Ah, yes. You have told me about him.** " The Azure Knight trailed off. " **What of his companions? Perhaps their souls shall quench my thirst as well as his.** "

"He was one of the metal men but not part of their little group. Kroton was his name. Had a more retro look than I remembered," she answered.

"Ret… tro?" Azwel asked, confused.

The Time Lady gave the scholar a brief look. " _Retro_. It means old-fashioned, in a sense." She placed her finger on her chin with a mischievous smile on her face. "The new companion, I never asked for her name. She was quite confrontational and all, announcing that she would stop me and all." She scoffed dismissively as she rolled her eyes. "Can you believe that?"

"Not to interrupt, but could you, ah, change to a more… presentable form, perhaps?" Azwel pointed his finger upwards. "You do have tasks to attend to for the Holy Roman Empire, do you not?"

The Azure Knight let out an annoyed grunt, but he complied. He planted his sword onto the floor. Black lightning flew out of the sword and everything became bright for a moment, causing Azwel and Missy to avert their eyes. As the light receded, they adjusted their eyes to find his form was now a nobleman with a stylish mask on his face. Fair-skinned with angular features and blue eyes, the sword he had was now gone, and so was his malformed right arm. His armor was the same but silver that gleamed in the sunlight, his hair a short but stylish yellow blond. "Is this better?" he asked with a French accent.

"Much. Thank you, my lord," Azwel replied. He clapped with a wide smile on his face. "Excellently done."

"Now, then…" The Graf stepped forward and stopped suddenly as if he became lost in his own thoughts.

"What is it?" Azwel asked, both curious and concerned.

"The process has begun." Graf Dumas grinned. "Well done, Azwel. And you did your part well, Missy." He chuckled as he stepped past the two, the Time Lady's gaze following him. She always was a sucker for the classic, maniacal laugh.

* * *

 _Year: 4356_  
 _Location: Icarus Station, Alexander Rand's office_

"Alex, do you know what these things are?" The Doctor observed the shards. They emitted faintly, mounted in glass containers on the administrator's desk. He and Kroton barely had enough time to catch up on their ordeals before the administrator had called them all into his office.

Jocelyn and her robotic companions looked on as Alex leaned in with squinted eyes. "Not the faintest idea, Doctor," the administrator answered, rubbing his chin. "You said they made the Ania queen miserable?"

"Obviously," the Doctor deadpanned.

"But you didn't suffer from any effects of these shards, right?"

"Seems like it." The Doctor pressed his lips together and turned an uncertain gaze at the administrator. "I know what you're thinking," he sighed. "Don't; it won't end well. It _never_ ends well."

"We need to know exactly how dangerous they are, Doctor. It was dangerous to the Ania, but we have no idea how they would affect human beings, most of all," Alexander replied firmly, with his hands behind his back. "Surely you know better than that."

"Or a Cyberman," Kroton injected. "Or a robot."

The Doctor tried to protest, to make his case with a pointed finger, but even the Time Lord would realize that argument was pointless when Alex turned toward Jocelyn. "Wanderer, would you mind being a guinea pig for a moment?"

Jocelyn hesitated. _If only Moira could see me now._ "Are you sure that's a good idea? Because I don't think that's a good idea."

The administrator frowned. "I don't suppose you have a better idea in mind?"

"Yeah. I can think of several on top of my head."

"Such as destroying it?" Alex asked. "Probably a sensible course, but if we go through with it, what then? How would we prepare for it next time, _if_ there is a next time? And should OMI or the Cyberman be willing, would they follow through?"

Jocelyn sighed. Perhaps there was no point in arguing. "Guess I'll try the red one," she answered and approached the desk.

As she opened the glass box and grabbed the strange red shard, she felt a sudden jab in her hand. Looking down at it, she found that the shard had cut the tip of her index finger, on her left hand. As her finger bled, a wave of dizziness washed over her. She stumbled past the Doctor and others, who looked on with a mix of confusion and worry. The Doctor's eyes now became wide with alarm and he and the others hurried toward the Lone Wanderer.

"Guys? I… I don't feel so good," she muddled in her words as she spun toward the Doctor. "I don't know what's happening."

"Let go of the shard!" Kroton commanded.

Jocelyn, baring her teeth, lifted her left arm and looked at the shard, now glowing a hellish red, once more. Try as she might, she could not let go of it, as if an unseen force kept her hand closed.

"I can't," she responded.

"OMI, can you help me out?" Kroton asked.

"At once!" OMI replied, their face nodding, as they and Kroton went forth and tried to pry the shard away from Jocelyn's hand. As the robot touched the shard, a red wave appeared around Jocelyn and pushed them back. OMI flew headfirst to the wall nearby; Kroton was merely knocked off his feet.

It felt like there was a fever burning inside her body as she collapsed, but it wasn't the floor the Lone Wanderer landed on. Rather, it was like she started to fall, darkness enveloping around her. She looked upwards, only to see a dot of light quickly growing smaller and smaller.

The last thing she heard before she fell into complete darkness was the Doctor calling out, "Stay with me!"

She tried to stand up, but she found herself floating in a vast space, as there wasn't a ground to stand on. The sky and everything around her appeared to had stretch onto infinity. Surrounding her were chunks of masonry floating nearby, a pillar broken from a temple, a fully-collapsed house, and a fallen tower. All of them were structures of every shape of size from every place on the planet.

In the center, where she landed on a massive rock, was a presence, shining like a fire at a campsite. Bricks ripped from their mortar and a piece of rubble made contact then disappeared under silence. At a glance, the fire seemed comforting to her but at the same time, it had filled her heart with a sense of uncertainty.

 _Did the shard resonate with this thing?_ She gazed at the still-glowing shard in her hand.

The fire suddenly manifested, taking the shape of a human, crowned by a horned, humanoid skull. The essence growled, peering down at her like it was gazing right into her soul. It stretched its hand, made of sharp bones, at the shard as it etched closer and closer to the Wanderer. Reflexively, she stepped back, the shard still in her left hand, and pulled out her pistol at the being.

Her aim remained firm, and she let out labored breaths. If that thing tried anything, she will fire. Through the shard's essence, she had a feeling it wouldn't be enough.

It stopped, lowering its hand. In a deep, booming voice, it roared, " **Make me whole again by bringing the shard of Soul Edge to me, and _all_ your wishes shall come true!** "

The entity burst with fire, wreathing everything in its vicinity, her included. Her eyes stung even as she covered them with her arm before putting on her gas mask, the tops of her coat beginning to blacken. She gritted her teeth, small grunts of pain escaping her lips.

Amidst the red hellfire was a small speck of blue light, floating at where the entity once stood. For her, it might be her way out of here. She stepped forward, the sheer force of the flames pushing her back, yet she ignored it and the pain with it with every ounce of her strength. Each step brought her closer to the blue light, her right arm stretching out to grab it.

After what felt like agonizing minutes, she finally came upon the light. Over her hand was a small, blue stone. Looking at it, she felt as if she was in peace.

The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was a blinding flash of light emitting from the stone as she grasped it.

* * *

"Stay with me!" the Doctor called out. He reached out to Jocelyn, only for her to disappear before his very eyes. Looking at his now trembling hands, his breathing became shaky as he clenched his teeth together. His face was scrunched into a frown, a mix of anger and despair written all over it.

"Did she… Is she…?" Kroton was a difficult one to read, being a renegade Cyberman and all. But it was clear he shared the Doctor's sentiment. "What just happened?"

The administrator, stunned at this sudden turn of events, could barely stand, his legs quaking beneath his feet. I had no idea a shard of Soul Edge would do that."

This caused the Doctor to perk up at him. "What did you just say?"

"Soul Edge," the administrator answered. "Did you not know of this before?"

"No. Moments ago, you said you had no idea what it is," the Doctor pointed out.

"Of course, I always know!" Alexander insisted. "I just didn't know what sort of effects it had."

The Doctor turned to OMI. "Do you know as well, OMI?"

An image of a thumbs up appeared on the robot's screen as they tilted their head. "Well, of course, Doctor! It's in my database, as a matter of fact. Would you like to know more—"

"Nevermind that. Kroton?"

The Cyberman shrugged. "I'm in the same boat as you are. This is the first time I've heard about this Soul Edge." He paused as if something had dawned on him. "Er, Doctor? This is why I'm—"

The Doctor raised his index finger without a glance before the Cyberman could finish his sentence. "Quiet! I'm thinking." He rubbed his chin, as if in deep thought. "This isn't right. Something's off…" he mumbled to himself. "We're facing with contradictory information here. Normally, somebody's lying, but consider this." He whipped out a piece of chalk from his coat.

"Hey, don't do that!" Alex exclaimed. He straightened his stance and moved toward the Time Lord.

The Doctor ignored his protests when he knelt and planted the chalk on the floor. As he began to move it, the chalk snapped in half. Not only that, but it didn't leave a mark on the floor. He sighed, dropping his head in embarrassment. "Uh… anyone got a marker I could borrow?"

Nobody answered. "Well, I'll take that as a no, then." He picked up the pieces in stride as he stood back up. "I'll make do." He paced around the room. "Now, then… where does that leave us?"

"What do you mean?" Alexander asked.

"I'll give you a straight answer: time is being rewritten as we speak," the Doctor finished firmly. "Maybe even reality itself. Now that's a chilling thought." He chuckled a little, only to stop when he noticed the unsettled looks OMI's and Alex's faces. "Sorry, got carried away." He cleared his throat. "Now, the question is…" He turned at the blue shard in the glass box, still closed and sealed up. "Where is the source of the paradox? How do we stop it?"

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Alexander called out.

"Trust me on this one." The Doctor opened the glass box and grabbed the crystalline shard. As soon as it was in his hands, he felt a sense of tranquility washing over him.

 _Hello, Doctor._

The Time Lord's body jolted. He zipped his head around, trying to find where the strange voice came from. It sounded familiar too. Where did he hear that voice before?

"So you're the one speaking to me?" the Doctor asked, staring at the shard.

 _Yes._

"Can you help us? I need to find my friend and, well…" He rolled his eyes. "Stop a paradox from ripping all of reality apart."

 _I shall be your guide, then._

He turned around to the others, a grin spreading across his face. "I got it, now. This shard…" He waved the shard around like it was tiny flag. "Can take me wherever I need to go."

"But Doctor—" the administrator replied.

"My apologies and I do appreciate meeting you all, but we must make haste!" He made a beeline for the TARDIS while beckoning to the rogue Cyberman. "You should go with me, Kroton. I think this is what you're here for."

"Of course, Doctor!" Kroton exclaimed. "It's good to be back!"

With that, Kroton followed, closing the door behind them as they entered inside. The shard still in hand, the Doctor rushed the console of the TARDIS and ran a diagnostic check on it.

The Doctor looked over the diagnostics of the shard on one of the console screens. It took him some effort to read through the seemingly random numbers and other gibberish, but he found the coordinates of the shard's origins, as a projection of Earth had emerged on the screen. A _different_ version of Earth, to be exact. Suddenly, the screen flashed out:

 _RIFT DETECTED_

 _SEVERITY: DANGEROUS_

 _SIZE: LARGER, BUT STILL SMALLER THAN BELGIUM_

 _LOCATION: EARTH._

 _YEAR: 1607_

 _EXACT COORDINATES: UNKNOWN_

"Oh, that can't be good…" the Doctor muttered in horror.

"What is it?"

"We're running out of time," the Doctor answered. He stepped away from the console, waving his hands around to clear his thoughts. "This shard came from a parallel Earth. Renaissance era. Early 17th century."

"Great! So we can take the TARDIS there," said Kroton. A pregnant pause from the Doctor, his hand resting on his chin. "You are sure the TARDIS will pull through?"

"It won't be easy. We'll have to cross through the Void—empty space between dimensions. Think of it like, like…" He clapped his hands together, struggling to come up with an appropriate metaphor.

"I know what that is, Doctor. Two universes stacked against one another; the space between worlds." Kroton crossed his arms in front of his chest.

The Doctor flashed a grin on his face. "Well, yes! That should be obvious, no? Now, this thing…" He gestured toward the shard. "…can give us a safe passage. Well, a _safer_ passage. Probably a good thing I happened to have some spare power cells from the last time I went to a parallel universe, but…" He puffed his cheeks. "…I admit it's not a perfect set-up, so I can guarantee it'll be a rough ride."

Kroton acknowledged his warning with a nod and grabbed onto the rails of a nearby stairway as the Time Lord approached the console and pulled the lever. This time the entire TARDIS—once again—shook like an earthquake.

"Steady now!" the Doctor bellowed out. He gripped the console as much as he could. "Steady!"

Outside, the blue box tumbled through the space-time vortex, as galaxies and planets and stars all seemed to bend and fold, then unfold, giving away to a spiral of a wormhole.


End file.
